The Warrior Bride
by Punzie the Platypus
Summary: March, 1879. A church to be at in Idris, a baby, kidnapper demons, Lightwood relatives, training, scratches, Silent Brothers, and, of course, the infamous Magnus Bane comes to stay. All in the week of Sophie and Gideon's wedding.
1. Will Has Gotten Himself Hurt

_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Infernal Devices. Hello, this is my first story for this fandom. Hopefully you will like it! :)**

There was a great, sort of indescribable feeling going through the entirety of the Institute. It was obvious to everyone why it was there, but it seemed more pronounced than it might have been.

Tessa was sure that Will was the main reason there was a buzzing through the air. That itself was strange, for Will was one never to cause excitement like this. He was the one who provoked everyone into a wildly amused state, but not one like this. Sophie had to constantly reprimand him for poking fun at Gideon, but the Lightwood didn't mind. He was getting married in about a week, and he found a brotherly amusement in seeing Will so hyper and about.

"I love weddings, you know," Will said excitedly one morning. Everyone was settled around the breakfast table, dining on scones and eggs and sausages and muffins, the usual breakfast spread. The sound of Bridget's mournful singing was coming through the door, and everyone was taking great care in clanging their silverware against their dishes as much as they could to drown her out.

"You never told us that," Tessa said.

"He probably finds more joy in wrecking them than in relishing them," Gabriel said from his spot next to Cecily. Cecily, who had never seen her brother at a wedding but was sure that Gabriel was right about him, didn't say a word to scold or agree with him.

"Gabriel," Charlotte said from her spot at the head of the table. Despite being petite and short, Charlotte looked more the presence than she usually did. And for good reason, for she was expecting little Charles Buford Branwell in less than a month and was, as Will had previously whispered to Tessa with a sort of evil grin, like a blown up whale. Tessa was sure that if Henry heard Will say such a thing, he would blow up as much as Henry could blow up.

"I won't ruin this one, I believe," Will said. He shot a look at Gabriel. "Though, you may have a target on your back now."

"Will, I will not have you ruining my wedding," Cecily said pleasantly as she spread jam on a muffin.

Will raised an eyebrow. Gabriel nearly choked and Gideon set to pounding on his brother's back with a helpful fist.

"Are you quite all right, Gabriel?" Tessa wanted to know.

Gideon shrugged in response and said, looking to Tessa, "He'll be fine. He's been through far worse."

"How horrible would it be to die by choking on a muffin. It'll be perfectly shameful looking on your gravestone, Gabby," Will said. "'Gabriel Lightwood, 1870-1889. Source of death: choking on breakfast.' I knew Bridget's cooking was deadly when you hired her, Charlotte. We should have taken care, for Gabriel's sake."

Charlotte could only let out a rueful,_ "Will,"_ when there was a knock at the door.

"Goodness, the Silent Brothers are fast. They must have heard you," Will said cheekily, earning him a light shove from Tessa, who couldn't help but crack a tiny smile at his great childishness, as Charlotte called out, "Who is it?"

Their new maid, a young maid with a Cockney accent with long wispy hair, opened the door. Her name was Lucy. She said, "The we'ing dress fer Miss Collins is 'ere, ma'am."

Charlotte looked relieved to have a diversion in the conversation. She turned to Tessa and Sophie and suggested that the two go to Sophie's room for her to try on the dress.

"Want me to hold Gideon down for you?" Will inquired as they all stood up.

Charlotte frowned. "No, I have a matter for you and Gideon to attend to. Two demons have been sighted; come along to my study for details."

"And where will Gabriel be in all of this?" Will wondered as he quickly crossed the room to open the door for Tessa. She placed a slender hand on his arm in thanks.

"I have a training appointment with Cecily in the training room," Gabriel said, almost matter-of-factly, as they all started to drift out of the room.

Will started on letting out a raspberry and his objections as Tessa caught Sophie's hand, exchanged an excited grin with her, and darted down the dark halls of the Institute to where Sophie's new Shadowhunter room was. She had moved all her things from her servants' quarters to her room, which was bare in a sense of having no personality of its own. She had fixed it up with her own clothes and bits and pieces of things from her past, from her ancient photos to dried flowers along with her gear and _stele_, which she kept mostly in her room. She was still in training and didn't feel ready to use her _stele_ so frequently.

The room, as dark as usual, was also bright with light from the crackling fire and a great amount of witchlights all set about in their torch-like holders scattered about the walls, creating shadows. But perhaps what shone the most was the gold of the wedding dress that the dressmaker was laying about carefully over the bed.

Sophie put a hand over her heart and tried to keep the tears from running over her eyes. She had never seen, never mind owned, such a dress. It was long, with golden lace intertwined at the edges. The sleeves were slightly puffed, with bronze running around the bodice of the dress. There was golden and cream colored petticoats that were light to the touch and upon handling were understood to hardly weigh a thing. The girl ran a hand along the dress, as careful as if it was a newborn babe, to touch it with her still red hands, horrified that she would ruin the perfection of it.

Tessa, however, was very excited as she talked and looked awed at the dressmaker, who explained her craft about taking up the task of designing, making and finishing the dress. This dress looked a great deal better than it had in the sketches Sophie, Tessa, Charlotte, and even the slightly interested Cecily had helped to make and critique and praise.

"Jessamine would have been pleased, anyway," Tessa said excitedly. "This fabric is so light; I can only hope that you don't have it ruined in dealing with demons. Ichor could be hard getting out of it. Though, I'm sure Lucy could save it, though I say there will be no reason for her to do so. Your wedding will go along splendidly. Don't you think it'll go well, Sophie?" She turned back to look at the girl, who looked overcome with shock and awe. Tessa chastised herself for not realizing the thoughts of Sophie and gently grasped her arm, smiling broadly, saying, "Shall we have it on you, Sophie?"

"Yeh, let's gert it on ya," Lucy said, and Sophie was fairly speechless as within the hour, she was displaying the most beautiful dress she had ever seen on herself. Tessa was on a step stool finishing up her hair, which she had wanted to do. Sophie had allowed her, seeing as Tessa seemed most set on doing it, and her hair had never been set in such a delicate and caring manner.

"There," Tessa said, pleased, as she put the brush down and stepped off of the step stool. "If that doesn't have Gideon itching to run down the aisle to catch you, he isn't worth your while."

"Tessa," Sophie said, blushing. She could hardly think of anything but of the sincere smile on his face. That aisle would be so long to walk down, she was sure. Gracious. Suddenly, she had a fit of inspiration to hurry to Idris that moment to be paired with him. But, of course, Sophie knew, as she straightened, that wouldn't be able to happen. Sometimes she truly was too sensible for her own good. If she wasn't so, she could hardly imagine how Will and Tessa would be controlled. They were too madly in love to be sensible, and so she had to provide the sensibility for them all.

Lucy tutted and said that she looked like an angel, making both the girls exchange looks, and then there was a rapid fall of footsteps across the floor that made the twos' looks change. Tessa immediately went to the door and yanked it open and stuck her head out into the hall.

Before her was a not too surprising sight. Cecily, her hair all about and not tied back as she usually had it styled, was pulling the arm of Will, dragging him down the hall with a stony glare on her face.

Will was loudly protesting, and Tessa said, "What has happened?"

Cecily stopped dragging and let go of Will's arm, making him instantly go to grasp his wrist and then glance back at Tessa. His face was covered with a light sheen of sweat, dampening the black hair around it.

Tessa tried to calm her rapidly beating heart and turned to Cecily as she stalked up to her brother's fiancée, looking as if she wanted to tattle on him.

"Tessa," she said in a calm voice, "please tell my brother that demon scratch is not very much minor at all, and that we have to call a Silent Brother."

Will's ears perked up, and he looked excited. His eyes lit up with an unexpected glow. His entire countenance seemingly picked up life. He explained his surprise to Tessa: "I-I forgot about them coming along."

Tessa shook her head. As if Will would do such a thing as that.

"He just didn't want to be encumbered with having his time being spent in the hospital room," Cecily went further on to explain.

"It's horrible in there, you know," Will pointed out.

"They can do the application of medicine in your room, Will," Tessa also pointed out.

Will brightened still more. "Right you are, Tessa."

Tessa nodded and stepped forward, gently setting a hand on his arm. Her other went to his wrist, removing the hand he had on it, to reveal a dark, long scratch. There were four claw marks, mixing skin with ichor and his own blood.

"That's nasty," Tessa said, looking up to meet Will's eyes, the very things that could hold her gaze and cause her to lose power to remember anything else.

"Yes," Will said quietly. "I know."

Tessa smiled at him and reached into her pocket to pull out a fine linen handkerchief. She gently set it against his skin and dabbed at the wound. "You may lose your arm."

"How unfortunate," Will said. "How am I supposed to be able to play cards now?"

"Your life will never be the same. I might win for once," Tessa said.

Will cocked his head, chuckling. "As if that would ever happen."

Tessa gave him a mischievous smirk. "You sound as if there are doubts in my abilities in you, Mr. Herondale."

"I hold your card playing skills in high esteem, Miss Gray, but I can hardly say they compare to mine, even with me to be soon one-armed," Will said.

Cecily let out a wailful groan. "The flirting has to stop, or else you may just lose that arm, Will. Come along or Charlotte will fret," and she grabbed Will's arm once more and started him down the hallway. He looked hardly like he was protesting now, though, with the thought of maybe Jem coming along to see him.

Tessa turned back to Sophie's bedroom, which had the door slightly ajar. Sophie peeked her face through slightly, wondering, "Is Gideon there?"

Tessa shook her head.

Sophie let out a breath. "What has happened?"

"Will has managed to get himself scratched by a demon," Tessa said bluntly.

"Goodness, then you must go to him," Sophie said. She flushed. "It's awfully frivolous for me to put on this dress in the middle of the morning. I shall change with the help of Lucy. Go along, Tessa."

Tessa nodded and picking up her scarlet colored skirts, she hurried down the winding hall and came across Gabriel coming along to the hospital room the same time she was.

"What has happened?" Gabriel wanted to know.

"Will was being clumsy, as usual," Tessa said, her voice soft and filled with an admiration for her fast, fearless Will. She gently opened the door and walked into the hospital room, which was set with the light glow of the blue-white glow of the witchlights that were set about the entire room. She saw Cecily pulling all her weight down on Will's arm in order to settle him down on one of the neatly made cots. Tessa quickly took to his side as Cecily straightened and put her hands on her hips.

"Are you fine, Cecily?" Gabriel wondered, sounding strangely concerned. He put a hand on her arm, making her turn to him.

"I'm fine," Cecily said. She turned from his sharp green eyes and looked sternly at her brother, who was discarding his gear with the help of Tessa and looking very pleased with his actions as only he could. "Will has gone and hurt himself with a demon scratch."

Gabriel seemed to ignore this information. "So you're fine, then?"

"Don't make me repeat myself," Cecily said teasingly. She said to Will in a stern manner, "I'm going to go tell Charlotte. She won't be pleased. This will distress her."

Tessa looked to Will at that. He looked a little guilty. Poor Charlotte had been sworn in with many different papers and things she needed to do as Consul. She was always stuck in her study poring over matters that gave her incredible headaches and back pains. (This last was mostly due to the oppressiveness of little Charles Buford Branwell.) Everyone, even Will, felt bad about bringing more stress on her. She, of course, in the usual Charlotte way, bore it the best she could, but the lines and bags around her eyes told them more of her health than she did.

"Do we really need to tell Charlotte of this-" he began, but Cecily said furiously, "She is the Consul, Will, so don't think of defying her. You know how mad she'll be if she finds out that this happened without any of us telling her. She will think we don't trust her or are withholding important information from her, and I don't know about you, Will, but I'd rather that not be the case," and Cecily turned on her heel, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and stalked out of the room, her shoes smacking against the floor and making the most satisfying tapping noises that had ever beset that room.

Everyone stared back at her, so her effect could be considered quite good and Gabriel may have rated it a seven, maybe an eight for the hip swinging.

* * *

Charlotte, contrary to what she may have ever thought before, had never had so much paperwork to do. She had thought that just being the Head of the Institute had been hard enough, with files and reports and the children to watch over (they were still children, no exceptions). She was now waist-deep in letters to finish reading and replying to, and the baby bump she had on her body was keeping from her stretching out and dipping her quill in the inkpot, making her sufficiently annoyed and her hair frayed.

She let out a sigh and was about to stand up to walk about and try to defuse her swollen ankles when someone came crashing through into her study. She knew who it was instantly. Cecily Herondale never knocked, because she never had the thought to. Charlotte had tucked this fact into her brain for times such as this as she looked up from her too-tight shoes and said, "Good morning, Cecily."

Cecily nodded respectfully. "Charlotte."

Charlotte saw that the girl looked a bit frazzled and a little bit furious, and so she cautiously asked, "What is wrong? Has something happened?"

"Will has gotten a demon scratch and needs the Silent Brothers," Cecily said, "for it is quite deep, and an _iratze_ would not be able to do much for him."

Charlotte closed her eyes for a moment. Will. He had taken back to his reckless ways, though not as violently as before. She was sure it had to do with the fact that there was no more Jem to watch behind him and make sure he didn't fall off the top of a tall building. He had gotten himself up right again after the loss of Jem and the defeat of Mortmain, and despite her sigh over his no watch for his help, it did make her feel as if he was coming around to himself again, and that lightened her heart a bit.

"I shall send for the Silent Brothers. Please go be ready to receive them," Charlotte said.

Cecily nodded and Charlotte walked across her carpet to her chair behind her desk. Taking her seat once more, she looked back up to see Cecily heading back to the door, and so she quickly said, "Cecily?"

Cecily turned on her heels. "Yes?"

"Did they kill the demons?" Charlotte wondered.

Cecily gave her a very vehement nod, and then turned about and closed the door in an almost careful-like manner behind her.

Charlotte let out another sigh as she looked at the amount of mail around her. Just another issue to add to her long line of things to take care of.

**Poor Charlotte: :( Thanks for reading!**


	2. To the Infirmary!

_**Soli Deo gloria **_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Infernal Devices. Thank you for the reviews!**

Cecily turned from the study door and was nearly startled out of her skin. She silently cursed herself for being like that when she was a Shadowhunter. Shadowhunters were never taken by surprised by someone waiting for them. Especially when it was another Shadowhunter.

"Listening at doors again, are we?" she said quickly to Gabriel, who was slightly flushed as he stood up straight from his squatting position.

"Yes, I was, actually," Gabriel said.

Cecily gave him a look and said, to his surprise, "You will have to teach me that rune. It'll come in handy."

"I'm sure," Gabriel said. "Cecily, I've come to ask you something. Our training . . . it was interrupted by your brother." Him saying this made her wonder if Will had done such a thing on purpose, calling for her in the most playful tone as soon as he and Gideon had walked through the door.

"I know," Cecily said slyly, knowing fully well what he was talking about. She had spent a lot of time in the training room ever since the youngest Lightwood brother had taken residence in the Institute. Her muscles were getting tougher, and she was getting better at everything she put her mind to. She could take down a challenger in less than three seconds with barely any words on her lips, which were always in use.

The two of them had been interlocked together when there had been the call of Will, and she was eager to resume her training.

"Shall we head back?" Gabriel wondered.

"Yes. Once Will is taken care of," Cecily said, and around the hall came Tessa, who stopped and stared at seeing the two teens just within inches from each other. Cecily turned and met her eyes, and Gabriel stepped back, clearing his throat, but Cecily looked hardly perturbed as she said, "Charlotte is going to send for the Silent Brothers, Tessa."

"Good. I was going to go talk to her," Tessa said. She nodded awkwardly and passed into Charlotte's study after a knock permitted her entrance. Once the door closed with a solid thud, Cecily laughed into the heel of her hand and looked to Gabriel, who wasn't smiling but was looking at the door with a slight blush on his cheeks. It was rare whenever Gabriel Lightwood ever blushed, and Cecily found him quite adorable.

"Come along, Gabriel," she said, and he eagerly followed her.

* * *

"What can I help you with, Tessa?" Charlotte asked. She sounded a little irritable to Tessa, though she had been getting a little bit antsy for the past month. Will had sworn that he had thought that her mood would have gone away after a week, but he was also still the bearer of a lot of bad news to make Charlotte even more jumpy.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," Tessa said.

Charlotte looked up from where she was picking the ink out of her pens. "Pardon, Tessa? I'm quite glad to say I am feeling fine." Charlotte gave her a weak smile. "Thank you, though, for the voiced concern."

Tessa furrowed her eyebrows and rose from the seat she had taken in front of Charlotte's desk. She came around and laid a hand on the Consul's shoulder, making Charlotte put down her work once more. "Charlotte, you can't be fine. You have not been yourself for the past month. I don't know if I have rank enough to offer advice to you-"

"Tessa," Charlotte said quickly, looking up to face her. "Don't think like that. I am open to anything and everything. Whether I abide by such advice is my choice."

"Well then, listen. Please. I do advise you to seek the help of a Silent Brother. Please. You can surely not be as healthy as you think," Tessa said quietly.

Charlotte looked to the fire for a moment. She didn't think anything was terribly wrong with her. This was a normal pregnancy, she was sure. If there had been something wrong with her, surely the Silent Brothers would have told her earlier. She shook her head, saying, "I think you worry a great deal, Tessa. I believe I am fine."

Tessa was about to protest, thinking her friend not being careful enough with her health and the baby's, when there was a great knocking about the door that caused the two women to look at it strangely.

In burst Henry. Or, he would have burst in, had he been able to run. His feet were now against a bar at the bottom of his wheelchair, which he was pushing in as fast as his hands could allow as he said excitedly, "Charlotte, Charlotte! I think I've got it, yes yes yes yes, Charlotte!" He noticed Tessa and said, "Hello, Tessa."

Tessa nodded and Charlotte had to prompt Henry about what he had been working on. He remained on the first floor of the Institute, occasionally not minding too much when Gideon or Will helped him up the stairs. He had taken to one of the old bedrooms to fix with his tinkering, as Charlotte had vocally protested against him setting things up in their bedroom. He spent quite a lot of his time in there, and he now said excitedly, "My chair, the chair that is to go up and down the stairs, along the side of the wall. It's ready; I'm sure of it. I've managed to create the mechanization which should allow it to go up and down. It was quite simple, actually. One has to only take a few pieces of metal and use a fusing gear-"

"Henry," Charlotte said quietly.

"Well, I hope to get some help in setting it up. This one will go down to my crypt. I'll make more so I can go all about the Institute. Oh, Lottie!" and Henry, beaming, came around the desk and gave the obliging Charlotte a kiss on the cheek. "I am so excited."

"Congratulations, Henry," Tessa said.

Henry noticed her for only the second time as if he hadn't seen her the first time he had come in. "Oh, hello. Thank you, Tessa!" He raised a puzzled eyebrow, though. "Why is Tessa in here, Charlotte?"

"She was coming along with some advice for me. I respectfully declined it," Charlotte said.

"What advice?" Henry said, looking to Tessa with a slightly interested look.

"To see the Silent Brothers," Tessa said.

Henry instantly looked to Charlotte, looking very worried. "Why would she need to call the Silent Brothers, Lottie? Is something wrong with you? Oh, goodness, is Buford all right?"

"Charles, Henry," Charlotte said wearily, putting a hand against her sweaty forehead. My, was it warm in here. It was March and so London was cold and rainy and depressing, and so the fires were all up and crackling, filling the rooms with delicious warmth. For Charlotte, though, the fireplace made her study feel like a furnace.

"What is it, Charlotte! Tell me," Henry said.

"Hasn't she been looking horrible, Henry?" Tessa said. THIS was a tactic. Using Henry's pleading toward his wife would surely get Charlotte into the infirmary, and it was a way that Tessa was going to exploit for all she was worth, whether Charlotte liked it or not.

"Yes, oh dear, Charlotte, I must say you look peaked," Henry said worriedly.

"Just overheated, Henry. Nothing to worry about. You two are making a terribly big deal of this, I am QUITE fine," Charlotte said.

"The Silent Brothers are coming, though. It's a good time to just make sure, Charlotte," Tessa pointed out.

Henry looked a little alarmed. "Why are the Silent Brothers coming already? What has happened?"

"Will," Tessa said breathlessly.

That was all the explanation Henry needed. He waved a hand and turned to Charlotte, saying, "Please, Lottie, for me, go to the infirmary room and have the Silent Brothers examine you. It couldn't hurt, now could it? Especially since you're a Shadowhunter, there's a greater chance-"

Charlotte turned and pursing her lips, stood up, immediately making Henry look surprised and Tessa hurry to help her. Charlotte came around the desk and turning to Henry, said, "You have worn me down enough. I will indulge you two."

Henry's bright smile broadened as he followed the two toward the door to head to the infirmary room. To his relief, Tessa quickly volunteered to push him along, giving him the opportunity to wipe his hands on a rag and explain his plans for the chair to Charlotte as they slowly plodded along. Charlotte's ankles were burning her, but she didn't say a word, as the two beside her could do nothing about it.

They approached the door as the mournful, passionate wailing of Bridget, who was enjoying herself far too much, rang through the Institute.

_Oh, my dear Sweet William_

_That's what they called 'im_

_He lost that trait of his, though_

_Only took 'im bit more than a mo'_

_To lose his 'ead_

"My goodness, how morbid," Charlotte said as Tessa darted ahead of her and opened the infirmary door and led the group into the infirmary. Will was lying on his bed, his eyes closed, his breathing irregular, like he was trying to pretend to be asleep but he wasn't. Sophie was prepping rags, acting very worried as she shot questions at Gideon. His gear was covered with the black blood, ichor dripping from his arms as Sophie went to wipe it away. His hair was tousled and he looked out of breath as she asked, "Are you sure you aren't hurt, Gideon?"

"I'm perfectly fine, Sophie," he said. He looked around to see the Branwells and Tessa as Sophie went at his neck with a vengeance.

"Charlotte. Henry. Tessa," he said politely.

"How did you get all that gore all over yourself?" Tessa said, surprised that he had managed to get that disgusting in dealing with two demons.

"Will fell back and I chased the two down an alley. Had them cornered in a limited space. It would be hard not to get so disgusting," Gideon said patiently as he looked up at the ceiling as Sophie went around him like she was getting the grime off of a newel post.

"Did you get both demons?" Henry wondered as he relieved Tessa of her post and went to wheel his chair next to a cot next to Will's, which Sophie noticed Tessa was helping Charlotte into. Throwing her rag onto Gideon's shoulder, making him take it and start wiping himself down, she hurried to help Tessa.

"Yes. Both are killed," Gideon said. He looked a little hesitant, but then said, "Are you feeling fine, Charlotte?"

"Yes. I'm fine. Henry and Tessa are just being two overbearing mothers, that's all," Charlotte said with a slight laugh as she leaned against the pillows, letting out a tight breath. She was going to have the impossible task of somehow making it off of this bed. Wonderful.

Will's eyebrows raised. "They're mothers, now? Tess, you never told me that. I feel shocked and betrayed. And Henry, I hadn't noticed. Congratulations."

"Will," Charlotte said.

He opened his eyes and said innocently, "Yes, Charlotte?"

"How did you acquire the scratch?"

"There was a demon involved, I think. And I think it put its claws into my skin, though I'm not quite sure. . ."

* * *

The loud clanging doorbell, old but still for good use, filled the entire Institute, loudly telling its occupants that someone was at the door.

Cecily broke off from Gabriel and rolled her eyes as she straightened and headed to the training room door to get along to the front door.

Gabriel's hand was on her arm and his hand on the knob before she could reach it, though.

"Let Lucy or Cyril get it, Cecy," he whispered very quietly. Cecily tried not to shiver at the sound of his accent being so husky.

And she turned around and agreed with him, stopping him from talking much more with her lips.

**Thanks for reading!  
**


	3. Yay, the First Relative

**_Soli Deo gloria _  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the fabulous Infernal Devices. The feedback is so grand, you guys! :)**

Tessa was busy stacking pillows all around Charlotte, much to her protests, which were weaker now as Henry made her laugh against her will. He sat at her right side and held her hand and kept his eyes on her. She could see how they lit up at seeing her. She was sure that he was just being mother hen-ly, but that was quite all right. She squeezed his hand back and Will said very loudly, "_When_ are the Silent Brothers going to be here? I'm getting bored!"

He was answered quickly. The doors to the infirmary opened as if they were pulled apart by magic. Cyril waved his hand and Brother Enoch came in along with Brother Zachariah, whose head was bent low so one could barely see the silver of his hair.

Of course this made Will sit straight up in bed, a vicious grin on his face, and he said quickly, his voice sounding more excited about this than the upcoming wedding, "Jem!"

_His name is Zachariah, Mr. Herondale. His old name is not to be used._ Brother Enoch sounded annoyed in all of their heads as he went to Will, who looked hardly sorry for what he had said. "Can I have Jem tending me?"

_Zachariah, Mr. Herondale._ Brother Enoch said this empathetically as he started to tend toWill's hand. Will hardly let out a grimace or a wince as the Brother applied runes to his skin, causing the skin to repair and no longer so look so dark and wet.

"How's it look to you, Jem? I got it while chasing a coupla demons. I didn't kill 'em, though. Gideon had to go and do that. I could have gotten them easily, though, if one of them hadn't scratched me. You would have gotten them really easily, Jem. You were awfully quick, Jem," Will said in a pleasant, polite voice that drowned out Brother Enoch's chastisements every time Will said Jem's name.

Tessa, who was standing by Charlotte's side as Jem asked her quiet questions as he began the starting of an inspection, thought she saw the slight slip of a smile on Jem's face. The two met eyes, and she could see the clearness in his, along with the silver of the drug. The look they shared was a secret one that was understanding over Will. And it was warm and lovely.

Once Brother Zachariah was done and nearly threw Will's hand back at him, he left him and went to Charlotte. Tessa stepped aside and went to Will. Sophie and Gideon, having no injuries, had hurried away to give the patients privacy. Tessa gently took Will's wrist in her slender hand, which he willingly let her do, looking at her face as she did so. She examined it and said, "It looks fine."

"It should be fully healed," Will said. "No more demon blood for me."

With that in mind, Tessa bent her head and gently set a feathery kiss on the inside of his wrist. Her lips lingered for a second before pulling away.

Will had to gulp to regain breath. His Adam's apple was large against his white throat as he said, "Perhaps I should get injured more often."

"Don't even think about it, Will," Tessa said.

"You sound like Cecily. Or my mother," Will said, scowling slightly.

"I care to marry someone fully intact, thank you," Tessa continued, ignoring his words.

"Hmm. You don't sound so much like either of them now," Will said, raising a black eyebrow.

Tessa shook her head and turned when she heard, _Consul, you are overheated and overworked. I suggest that sleep might be in order, and not so much walking around. It's imperative that you rest enough._

Henry nodded emphatically, as if his nodding further acknowledged that Charlotte should listen to these orders. Brother Enoch straightened. Jem fixed his hood after hearing something from Brother Enoch. Brother Enoch cleared his throat in everyone's minds. _Our work is done here. Good day,_ and he turned and started to the doors.

Will looked at Jem with a gaze of longing and determination, and Tessa looked from him to Jem and then hurried to catch up with him as he followed Brother Enoch. She caught a corner of his parchment sleeves and pulled, saying, "Jem."

Despite him not being allowed to respond to his old name, he turned to her. She gave him a smile, a smile that had once filled him with so much happiness and delight, and said, "Thank you for coming down. Will says you should cheer up. You're too down."

Jem once more gave her the slightest smile, and then there was the sound of someone clearing their throat in both of their heads, and Jem turned back and followed the Brother out of the infirmary. Tessa took a step back as the heavy wood doors closed with a satisfying clang.

* * *

The next morning proved better all around. Charlotte had fallen asleep early and was up with a bit more energy. Henry was excited and rambling about his chair, which everyone cared little about except Charlotte, who lent him a listening ear. Gabriel and Cecily had come in to breakfast together, bright-eyed and pink-cheeked and hair ruffled, making Will, who was buttering a scone, look suspicious at his end of the table, an eyebrow raised, a sense of his catching every move they made.

"How did they get to sit next to each other at the table, again?" he wondered, absentmindedly adding too much sugar to his tea.

Tessa quickly took his cup and went to scooping the sugar cubes out of it before they dissolved. "It was never discussed, Will. They just sort of started it and you hadn't started noticing until now."

Will frowned. "That's true."

Charlotte cleared her throat, thanked Henry for his enlightening news of the pyrotechnics of his chair, and said, "Everyone, can I please have your attention?"

Everyone turned their heads immediately and she cleared her throat. "Today is Monday, and as you all know, Sophie and Gideon's wedding is on this upcoming Saturday." Sophie blushed and Gideon smiled quietly as he glanced at his engaged.

Will sat up straighter, looking terribly alarmed. His eyes were big and his hand was shaking, from what, Tessa hadn't a clue, as he put down his fork and said in a shaky, tense voice, "Excuse me, Charlotte? No one had condescended enough to come and tell me this." He looked at Sophie and Gideon and breathed very heavily, his eyes lit with a brilliant excitement and fury. "You two are getting married. Not a WORD to me of it! The nerve!"

"Yes, you've been quite out of the loop of things, Will," Charlotte said, almost dismissively, putting a hand to her forehead. Henry looked a little concerned and she waved away the worried look on his face as she said, "Can I get around to explaining things now before you all run off to snog and throw knives at each other?"

"I suppose," Will said reluctantly, settling back in his chair. He waved an elegant hand, nearly knocking over Gabriel's goblet, making him look indignant, and said, "Carry on, Charlotte. Don't let me cause pause in the proceedings."

This earned him a laugh from Tessa, which was what he had been aiming for. He turned to look at her with a sort of delighted look in his eyes as she covered her large smile with her hand.

"As you all know, we're heading to the church in Idris where the ceremonial runes will be put on and where the actual wedding will take place. We're leaving directly at ten o'clock on Saturday. We'll take the carriages to the secret entrance and make our way there with plenty of time, hopefully. So that means no fooling around or trying to sneak looks," Charlotte said, looking from Gideon to Gabriel to Will, who looked a bit surprised that Charlotte dared to think of him doing that. "After that we will all come back for a dinner and reception. Lucy and Bridget will have help and it'll be like at Christmas, so I expect the best behavior from everyone. In the meantime, we shall have several Shadowhunters coming from all around the world to stay here this following week. As we all know, the Lightwood blood is far and is all coming back here to see that the bloodline continues."

"More Lightwood blood in the Institute. Wonderful," Will said lightly. Gabriel threw him a look while Gideon seemed to barely notice the little ditty Will was whispering under his breath about the songs Bridget would sing as she'd be forced to help tidy up guest rooms to accommodate everyone.

"Sophie, you and Gideon have all the wedding songs and all the music picked out already. I've got an appointment for Will to get tailored a suit, please don't look like that, Will. I've got roses coming in that will need to be set about, and I'm borrowing a few servants from a few obliging Shadowhunters."

It was indeed very easy for help to come along when Charlotte was Consul and her minor request was a command.

"Anyone who wants to attend dancing lessons please meet in the training room," Will said innocently. "Though, don't bring my sister as your dancing partner, Lightwood. The second you touch her will be the last time you have your hand."

"I should have you know, Will, I was planning no such thing, and so all worrying about that is for naught," Gideon said lightly, making Tessa laugh and Sophie blush and Gabriel look fiercely from Will to his brother and back again.

Charlotte took a deep breath. It was as if this breakfast was sucking all the energy out of her, and it was barely eight o'clock. Gracious. "Will, I want you and Tessa to head along to the printers to get the cards I had ordered. Then you are to help Sophie sign them."

"Forgery? In Sophie's name? Excellent," Will said, nodding his head curtly and looking as if Christmas had come early. Sophie threw him such a look that her eyes should have seared the skin right off of his skull.

"While they are at the printer's, I shall be in the training room with Sophie. We've got training to do," Gideon said. Sophie was still deep in her Shadowhunter training; she had to be made stronger in order to withstand the more dangerous runes she would receive during the marriage ceremony.

Henry brightened and said, "Ah, yes, good. That means I'll have Gabriel and Cecily help me with my chair. I'm setting it to go up and down the stairs to my crypt." He looked to the two suddenly cross teens and said, "Sound good to you lot?"

Cecily reluctantly nodded and Gabriel looked resolutely away from Henry's wondering eyes and gave a curt, "Yes," to the tea cup he was staring intently at.

Charlotte stood up suddenly, making everyone look to her, and she felt a bit dizzy. She put a hand to her forehead, her head starting to feel a bit woozy, and she heard Henry away from her asking, "Lottie, are you all right? Lottie?"

"I am going to go take a nap before lunch. Please feel free to knock if it's a real emergency," Charlotte said, "and having Gabriel beat you at knife throwing does not earn the title of emergency, Will."

"Of course not, Charlotte, though I highly doubt that was a good example. Gabby here can barely hit the wall compared to me. I'm the best at knife throwing. Learned from the best," Will said.

Charlotte nodded, though she barely heard him, and headed out the door to get to her bedroom, when the loud door bell rang through the room, capturing the attention of everyone, making them stop moving and look at the ceiling, asking if someone would come and fetch the door.

"Who could that be?" Charlotte wondered as Henry suddenly looked very red as he put down his butter knife and scone and hurried his chair to the door. Charlotte looked down at her husband and said, "Henry, do you know?"

"I should have told you, I know, but I didn't know when or how to," Henry said weakly, and he made to make past Charlotte, but she looked like she was about to fall over and block the doorway.

"Henry," Charlotte said, raising an eyebrow.

That was when Will stood up and hurried over to the back of Henry's chair. He gave Charlotte a smile and then pushed Henry forward, making her immediately move and allowing Will to make Henry go down the hall at an alarming speed, whooping as he lifted his feet and rode on the momentum, making Henry babble as he was afraid of their crashing.

Charlotte muttered under her breath as she scooped up her skirts and went after them.

"I really do wonder who is at the door," Gideon said thoughtfully, raising an elegant eyebrow that was covered with sandy hair as he took a sip of milked tea from a delicate China tea cup.

"Is it the Silent Brothers again? That would explain why Will was hurrying such to get to the door," Gabriel said, thinking of any possibility.

Tessa stood up, tossed down her napkin and looked to where they had disappeared."I believe I know," she said as she reached the door. She ignored the talking of Cecily, Sophie, Gideon, and Gabriel behind her as she grabbed her heavy scarlet skirts with one hand and used the other to run along the walls and pictures of the Angel as she hurried down the hall, weaving around to find the front door, which Will was hurrying to open, seeing as Charlotte was still at the end of the hall, breathing heavily. Tessa went to her and gently placing a worried hand on her arm, asked her if she was all right.

Charlotte nodded and was about to speak in her defense when there was an unmistakable voice coming from the door. Neither could understand what was being said; they looked to see Will was covering the front door's entrance with his body. He was very loud and very cheerful, and he looked over his shoulder with a marvelous glint in his eye as he said, "The relatives and guests have started coming, Charlotte. A bit earlier than you planned, I believe?"

The guest pushed past Will, who closed the door good-naturedly, and the guest took off her long veil to reveal a face with wrinkles, a slight smile, and the same eyes as Charlotte.

"Good-good morning, Charlotte," Aunt Callida said. She looked a little miffed as she had to walk around Henry's chair. She smiled, though, and bent to shake his hand.

"Aunt Callida," Charlotte said, sounding surprised. "I-I wasn't expecting you."

"Henry was. He invited me; sent me a note yesterday of how you were feeling unrest and how he was hoping that I would come early," Aunt Callida said. She nodded to Cyril, who was taking up her bags and trunk to a guest room, and then she made her way down the hall, her face full of concern when she reached her niece. "How is the young babe doing?"

"I believe he is doing well," Charlotte said, catching her breath from shock. She looked down the hall to Henry, who was just turning from explaining to Cyril where Aunt Callida's things were to go, and she gave him a very special look that made him turn red in the ears and say, "You weren't taking perfect care of yourself, Lottie, and Aunt Callida was more than willing. . ."

"You went behind the back of the Consul? Henry, I didn't know you had it in you. Well done, I'm extremely proud. I'm awfully influential, apparently," Will said. He grabbed Henry's surprised hand and shook it quickly and firmly, making Henry look even more alarmed as Will dropped his hand and said, turning to Charlotte, Aunt Callida and Tessa, "Tess, shall we go now before the relatives start shoving us out?"

Tessa smiled and said, "Just let me fetch my things." Turning to Aunt Callida, she said, "I shall get Lucy to come escort you to your room."

"Yes, I'll settle for a bit and then I'll be able to find you in your study, right, Charlotte?" Aunt Callida said, looking up from her purse.

"Yes, I suppose so," Charlotte said irritably. "Unless you'd rather have me lying down."

"If we had you lying down, it's probable we could never get you back up," Aunt Callida said, raising an eyebrow as she snapped her purse shut and pressed something into Charlotte's hand. "Have a peppermint. It'll clear your head." She looked to Tessa and bobbed her head quickly and then, straightening, said, "I'll have your Lucy make tea and we shall take it in the study."

"I shall be heading to my crypt," Henry said quickly, and with an almost apologetic look to the mutinous looking Charlotte, he wheeled himself away.

Tessa patted Charlotte's arm sympathetically and then turned and hurried down the hall once more. She called for Lucy and thought of how unladylike Aunt Harriet would have thought her to be running around the halls, showing her ankles to anyone who could be walking about, and yelling her head off for a servant. Then again, Aunt Harriet never had had a servant. Tessa had been her helper, and now Tessa hadn't to be bothered with the things such as making her own tea, though she did miss doing that on occasion and sometimes snuck into the kitchen and avoided Bridget's big presence as she put a pot on to boil.

Lucy popped her head out of a bedroom and Tessa said, "Charlotte's aunt is here and you are to show her to her room. Cyril knows where it is. Have tea ready for her and Charlotte in Charlotte's study."

"Very good, ma'am," Lucy said, her cheeks pink and her hair slightly sweaty from tending to the grates. "Da ya want me ta do ya 'air 'fore ya 'ead out?"

Tessa put a hand to her hair and shook her head. "I'll be fine, thank you."

Lucy nodded and headed down the hall to find Aunt Callida. Tessa turned on her heel and headed to her own room.

Her room, as usual, was fairly clean. Her dresses were put away and the dresser was tidied up, though she now had a fine collection of jewelry and combs. Will was always popping up and sticking something in her hair or on her arm or neck, running his hand across her arm as he did so, saying quiet things. It always startled her, but that didn't mean she didn't love it. She never had such jewelry before. In New York with Aunt Harriet and Nate, they hadn't been in a poverty-stricken state but they hadn't been going about in carriages to teas and dances. Everything was a bit more luxurious here at the Institute, and that suited Tessa very well indeed.

She set a hat (she had three) on her head after she had tied up her hair in a bun. Gloves were put on along with her overcoat and a parasol that Henry had made for her, looking to be just like Jessie's, only without the rips and tears and blood hers had. The umbrella was still hidden in her room in a corner across from Jessamine's dollhouse. The little house was cleaned and organized weekly, all done by Will. He would disappear into there and not anyone went in after him, for they knew that this was his personal duty he had promised to Jessamine at her death. He would always come out, quiet and grave, and not speak much until mealtime.

Seeing no large flaw on herself on the mirror, Tessa hurried out and found Will straightening his collar in a hall mirror near the door. He turned to her and his face was not blown up like a child's would be at seeing something wonderful, but it held a quiet smile he reserved only for her. It was one that came automatically to him at seeing her, a look that only showed through when he saw her and his breath was taken away.

"Will," Tessa said, prompting him to hold out his arm and say, "Shall we head out, Miss Gray?"

"I'd like that, Mr. Herondale," Tessa said with a light smile.

He smiled harder and realized that Mrs. William Herondale would suit her so well as she took his arm and they headed out to the courtyard.

Before them the courtyard of the Institute was very gray. It was not a very dark gray, but more of a depressing one that fit in with the rest of London in the spring. It was barely spring, seeing as it was still very chilly, cold enough for them to lug around another layer of clothing, and there was matted gray grass and ominous gray trees without leaves all over the place.

"Dismal, as usual," Will said, looking about, as the sound of the carriage coming around the courtyard's gates entered the air. He sighed and wished more than ever for the rolling green hills of Wales as the carriage came to a stop in front of the gate.

The engaged went down the steps and up to the carriage. Cyril opened the door for Tessa and Will helped her up before nodding to Cyril and pulling himself into the carriage.

Tessa settled her skirts around her as the door closed and Will closed the curtains before settling back in his seat. Even in the darkness, she could see the brightness of his wonderful grin as he said, "Well, now that we're all alone. . ."

Luckily, Cyril was not able to hear anything from the front seat.

**He he he he.  
**


	4. Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear

**_Soli Deo gloria_  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own TID. Thanks for the comments!  
**

Cecily was leaning against the doorway to Henry's crypt, holding a hammer and wondering how Gabriel even knew what exactly Henry wanted, for Henry was speaking some foreign language about gears and bolts and technics and Cecily couldn't understand a word of it.

Gabriel, while looking confused, somehow managed to do what Henry wanted him to do, and Cecily was just relieved that all she had to do was hand him random tools. She used to do that for her father, for he, while not an inventor, was constantly fixing things in their house when she was younger. He had give up on fixing things up when he had turned to drinking, and so she was glad that Gabriel was able to use tools properly, though this might be seen as a servant's job. But Cyril was out driving Will and Tessa about London and Henry wanted this done now, and Gabriel hadn't a good enough excuse to do anything but help him.

He now was sweating and wiping a sleeve against his forehead as he said, "Are we almost finished here, Henry?"

Henry had been carried down by Gideon and was sitting on the stairs, holding a step with his hand in the worse grip Cecily had ever seen. His wheelchair was at the top of the stairs, ready for Gabriel to drag down if he needed to.

Henry now nodded and said, "I think it might work." He pulled out a remote that was a twist of gears, buttons and metal that kept it from blowing apart into random pieces. He looked to the chair with a certain determination that he had had only once before: when he was about to go through the Portal for the first time. It was the look of work well done, the look of knowing that he had been right about his calculations and that this would work.

He pressed a button, and Cecily straightened and looked alert as the chair set on the long strip of metal with the middle scraped out in the wall began to slowly creep upwards. It was not very jittery at all, and Cecily and Gabriel looked properly surprised that it went up smoothly.

Henry grinned and said, "It works! It works! It works, I did it, this is brilliant!"

"But will it work with you in it?" Gabriel wondered aloud, looking incredulously at the little chair that had stopped at the top of the stairs.

Henry looked a little stressed, but he straightened and said, "My plans say that I should be able to move in it. Quick, let's test it out."

* * *

Will was definitely more fun to be out with in public when he wasn't trying to be a proper gentleman. It wasn't in his blood to be who Tessa had expected she would be marrying, and that was perfectly fine with her as they stepped out of a Downworld place that sold hats. She was now sporting a new bonnet with bright white berries and sprigs of white flowers. She had had a high time picking it out, for while shopping was now usually done with Sophie to get her wardrobe more befitting to a woman marrying one of the high-blood Lightwoods, Will was quite up to going out with her. If this had been Jessamine he had to accompany, he would have groaned and sat in the oddest positions on the bench, waiting for her to hurry up with her purchases. But with Tessa, she allowed him to pick out hats he thought suited her. He ran about the shop like a wild child, making the milliner, a creature that had bright eyes and a tail, shake her head and look like she wanted to swat at him.

They already had the large box of papers and envelopes in the carriage, and they had been in such a good mood that they had gone to the trouble of picking up fresh ink and postage stamps for Charlotte. They were hoping this would be a sort of peace offering to keep her pregnant self calm as they sauntered about London as easily as they pleased, covered with a dusting of glamour. Will found particular fun in looking at Tessa's face as people passed through her like she wasn't even there. Her eyes would widen and her hand would fly to the bodice of her dress, wondering how they could just go through her. She hadn't been out too much in the streets this early in the day to have to walk through the crowded streets, so she was still not used to people passing through her like she was nothing more than a cloudy fog. She already thought herself like that sometimes, and only Will had the ability to quietly assure her that she was herself, not anything that was murky or dark or cloudy.

"Any other places we should head off to?" Tessa wondered, her arm hooked around Will's, her eyes catching his.

"We could see if we could sneak into a tea parlor, but it's probably for the good of our health to head back before Charlotte uses her power for once and goes off with our heads," Will said a little reluctantly. While the Institute was a large place, he still felt like there wasn't much privacy for himself and Tessa. The training room was always being used by his sister and Lightworm. The kitchen was meant to be avoided at all costs, and the library was being attacked by Lucy, who thought that she, a mere maid, could clean years and years and centuries of historical dust off of the shelves. They usually spent time together in their rooms, though this would earn them raised eyebrows by Charlotte and a disguised cough from Cecily.

"Let's go see if we can perchance find the carriage then," Tessa said quietly. Will let out a light snort. That would be a formidable task, seeing as they were in the heart of London and Cyril and the carriage were nowhere in sight.

Will thought maybe it would be possible to whistle for Balios or Xanthos and they would come searching for them, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye coming rapidly toward them. It was a black carriage rattling toward them at top speed, as if it were being chased by the mundane coppers. Its wheels were bronze and the entirety of the vehicle was plowing toward them as if it contained an important, urgent message for them.

Then again, if it did, it probably would have slowed right in front of them instead of heading at them with a force of an entire fleet of horses instead of two.

Will couldn't form any words of protest or warning in his throat, but, as a Shadowhunter, he was quick with the rest of his body, and so he was able to quickly shove himself and Tessa away from the carriage before it barreled into them.

The engaged were knocked against the people behind them as the carriage came within a second of smashing into Will's skull. Its wheels popped and flew as it sprayed their clothes with muddy water that was in the drain off the walk.

The carriage was gone within seconds, and Will felt like all the breath was knocked out of his body. He slowly started to breathe again as he straightened, and then his heart pounded so hard that that was the only thing he could physically feel as his mind started to panic. He turned to Tessa, who had her mouth half open, bonnet set off her hair in the wind, her face as pale as could be.

"Tessa? Tessa!" Will said, instantly turning to her, somehow letting go of her arm, which was tightened around his like he was her lifeline, and his hands set around his waist and he held her close. Breathing was still hard as he whispered, "Please speak."

"Gracious," Tessa whispered, and he let her go and caught her hands in his, her gloves feeling reassuring against his shaking hands. He stroked them and said, "Are you all right? Are you hurt? Do you need a Silent Brother?"

He was practically pleading but he didn't care as she caught her breath and whispered, looking distressed, "You will have any excuse to call them to the Institute, Will."

He ignored that comment and said more urgently, "Are you all right, Tessa? Answer me!"

"I'm fine, just winded, Will," she said quietly. She straightened, looked more reassured, and placing a delicate hand against his forehead, tucking away several black curls that were curving around his worried face. "Are you fine, though, Will?"

"Yes, I believe so," he said, and he was grateful that he had had the training he had to be able to be that quick with such reflexes. If he had just been a mundane . . . not so quick . . . the thought, the images filled in his brain, like some image from a book he was imagining that was about two people that he knew but never met, two characters that were just in a book, not himself and his Tess.

"What was that?" Tessa wondered, looking past his face toward where the carriage had disappeared.

Will turned and looked the way she could, and something flashed in his mind. It was of two flaming Ys, one upside and the end of it touching the other end of the right side-up Y. It . . . it had been on the side of the speeding carriage. That was a signature of something, and what the something was, he wasn't sure. It wasn't any mundane carriage, that was for certain. It had to be from of Downworld.

"I didn't catch a name," he said. He frowned harder. "But why would something like that try to plow us down like that?"

"Have you made any Downworlders angry as of late, Will?" Tessa wondered aloud, her voice sounding faint.

"Can't say I have, Tess. Which is strange; I usually make it my weekly duty to make one want to murder me; it's habit," Will said. He couldn't think of anyone trying to kill him at the moment. The obvious choice at the moment was him being the target, but what if it was Tessa? Things had calmed somewhat since Mortmain and there had been no threat or ransom notes wanting Tessa for her Changing powers. No, things had been quiet. Too quiet. Will supposed now that he shouldn't have hoped for things to be normal around London since Tessa's identity was made fairly known throughout Downworld.

He said, still looking dully into the passing, billowing crowds of shoppers and hawkers, "Let's head back to the Institute. We can discuss this there."

"How will we find something different there rather than here?" Tessa wanted to know.

"There's a few more minds, a few more seeing eyes there," Will said. He shrugged. "Perhaps one of the others has heard of such a carriage. If not, I can always hang around a bar, see if I can get some news off a drunk patron."

Tessa shook her head, knowing Will didn't really go to bars all the time like that, but her grip on his arm as they weaved through the crowd to find Cyril was tighter than what was probably comfortable for him, but she didn't really care. She still had a droppy-stomachy feeling in her body, making her distrustful of every carriage that they passed, and even more trustful and dependent on Will, who seemed to know what he was doing more than she did.

They did end up finding the carriage; right where they left it, of all the places. It was in a store area that sold many dry goods. Cyril had his arms crossed along with his legs as he sat on the front seat. Upon seeing them hurry toward him like they were being chased, he leapt down and hurriedly opened the carriage door, looking concerned as he said, "Are you all right Mr. Herondale, Miss Gray?"

"Not too harmed," Will said as he carefully helped Tessa into the carriage. Once Tessa's trembling grip was off of his arm, he looked worriedly at Cyril and said, "We nearly died, but we survived, so not much to write home about."

Cyril probably would have look far more horrified than he looked now if Will wasn't trying to get killed on a regular basis, but he still looked deathly pale as Will stared at him for a moment before bringing himself up in the carriage, allowing Cyril to close the door behind him and hurry to deliver the couple back to the Institute.

* * *

Lucy had delivered the tea to Charlotte's study and had then hurried out to perform her duties in cleaning the extra guest rooms before they were filled that week, leaving Charlotte sitting on one of the sofas near the cackling fire with her aunt Callida pouring her tea.

Aunt Callida was an old woman, a good couple decades older than Charlotte, but she was a firm, kindly woman. She was Charlotte's favorite aunt, not too doting, but concerned. She handed Charlotte her tea but allowed her to get her own cream and sugar, knowing that her niece was not a paralyzed invalid but just a very pregnant Shadowhunter.

"Thank you, Aunt Callida," Charlotte said as her aunt sat back in her seat. The Consul sighed as she straightened the best she could with her body so large and her hand holding a very delicate China teacup. "Excuse me if you found me thinking that I didn't want you here in the Institute. I was just very surprised, seeing as Henry had invited you without notifying me."

"He did? I'm sorry," Aunt Callida said, stirring her tea, her hand gleaming with white scars and a black rune that stuck out on her pale, wrinkled hand. "He just sent me a letter, made it out to be that he was very worried about your health. Still, I know you're rather resolute and weren't so bad, but I thought maybe I'd be a help in this week, seeing as the baby is coming soon and two of your young Shadowhunters are being married."

Charlotte nodded, smiling to herself at remembering that that Saturday Sophie and Gideon would be wed. They had decided to stay in the Institute after they were married, which made her feel a bit relieved. It would have been strange for the two to go and have their own little independent household, and despite the grandeur and size of the Institute and Will, the place would feel rather small, even with a new baby to scream and shout and fill the old church with happiness and warmth. "I do appreciate your coming over, Aunt. I just wish that Henry had mentioned it to me. I got not a word from him about it."

Aunt Callida smiled fondly, like she was remembering something from a long time ago. "Your uncle Abraham was the same. So forgetful, nearly bordering on thoughtless. We got into so many arguments, and I would just wonder why he didn't remember." The smile faded and neither spoke but both knew that he had died of a brain defect.

"Still," Aunt Callida said, perking up a bit after a spot of tea, "I know things are busy, and I just want to be of service."

Charlotte wasn't one to normally ask this, but she said, "Yes. I need some help looking over a few letters, and my desk is a bit of a mess."

"Say no more, Charlotte," Aunt Callida said, standing up and putting her teacup down. She strided toward the desk, saying, "Just enjoy your tea and let me handle this, all right, dear?"

Charlotte was not in the mood to be arguing. Instead, she too set down her teacup and leaned against her seat. One of her hand draped across her stretched stomach, still feeling slightly startled when she felt the light fluttering against her. It brought a smile to her face to think that little Charles was kicking and wondering when he was coming out to see his mother and father. He would just have to stay there for a while longer, though. Just another month or so. That was all.

Charlotte's hand went around in little circles across the folds of her let out dress, feeling the kicks, when there was a knock on the door. She ruled out Cecily and said, "Come in."

Will came in looking rather disheveled. His hair was tossed about, his face pale and flushed at the same time, and his clothes were covered in dry mud, making Charlotte straighten and look alarmed. Her eyes immediately went to try to locate dark red or black across his clothes, but all there was was tan dirt.

"Will?" Charlotte said, worry in her voice. "What happened?"

Will looked like he was about to spill when he noticed Aunt Callida watching, looking interested from behind the desk. He nodded to her respectfully and then turned to Charlotte and poured out his tale, making Charlotte straighten until her back ached. She finally said, once he was done and out of breath, "Is Tessa all right?"

"Nothing harmed on her besides her clothes," Will said. He nodded to the door, still breathing heavily as he said, "She's off changing her clothes."

Charlotte took in Will, his nervous face, his shaken countenance, looking nothing like he usually did, sauntering around with a confident jig in his step. Here he was looking like he had seen a ghost, and a rather horrific one at that. She had never seen him look this way about one person, excepting one. Jem. And it proved to her that he loved Tessa as much as he had ever loved Jem, and that somehow hit her as something hurting and wonderful at the same time.

"Are you sure it was two Ys?" Charlotte said then.

Will nodded. "Yes."

Charlotte frowned. Aunt Callida echoed her thoughts. "I haven't heard of any Downworlders having that sort of sign on their carriage doors. And none of the mundanes would have that."

"That means only one other option," Charlotte said slowly, as if she was trying to determine whether or not her guess was right as it slipped off her tongue. "Demons."

"I was thinking the same thing," Will said. He straightened. "I'm going after them."

"When?" Charlotte said, not even bothering in trying to persuade him to stay behind and wait until they heard any news of the demons, not saying how she thought he should wait until Gideon and Gabriel were ready to go.

"Tomorrow. Get things ready and Gabby and Gideon and I can go on a bonding hunting trip," he said. His voice sounded burning and angry to Charlotte as she affirmed that that would work. Will was tired and Gabriel and Gideon were busy and they would need a location. Charlotte would call around and see if there had been other sightings of the demons and where they might be.

Will nodded and punching his hat in his hand, turned to the door, ready to leave, when Cecily came bustling through, looking slightly pink and tired.

"What is it, Cecily?" Will said, suddenly feeling worried, what with almost being hit by a carriage just less than half an hour previously and feeling paranoid.

"Henry's chair is done and he demands an audience to see his work," Cecily said. She waved her hand and then saw Aunt Callida and said, "Oh, hello."

Aunt Callida nodded, having met Cecily at Sophie's Ascension and at the Christmas Party that they had had that winter. "Henry has built something?"

"Yes. A chair that goes up and down the stairs. Strange," Cecily's face screwed up to be thoughtful, "it actually seems that it works. Come along," and she waved her hand and Aunt Callida went to help Charlotte up and Will, after being reassured by Charlotte to move along, went bounding down the halls and, hesitating a second beforehand, knocked rapidly on Tessa's door, his heart still beating out of his chest.

Tessa opened the door after a moment, wearing a green dress that was fairly plain. Her jewelry and combs were gone except for a simple necklaces encircling her pale neck.

Will found his breath after a moment and said, "Henry wants to show us an invention."

Tessa frowned. "He hasn't done that in a while."

"It's his chair. According to Cecily, it works," Will said, and that made Tessa frown harder and look far more interested.

"If Cecily said that, I have no doubts now," Tessa said, and the two walked down the hall, Will not holding her arm, as the hall was narrow, but he walked behind her, watching her and making sure she was fine, not limping and not hurt and not dead in front of him.

They came across the stairs to the crypt. Aunt Callida was behind Charlotte, who was hanging onto the railing for dear life, ready to catch her niece as she shifted back and forth, sure that Charlotte could take a spill.

Gabriel was at the bottom of the stairs with Henry, who was looking brightly up at the concerned and slightly interested faces of all the gathered occupants of the Institute.

"Ready, all?" Henry said, for once not going into grand detail about the process of making the machine and the pyrotechnics and difficulties he had in making it. Gabriel, pink-faced, with his sleeves rolled up into folds on his arms, looked relieved at this as he gladly helped Henry to set himself on the chair.

"Careful, Henry dear," Charlotte said, her other hand waving against her neck. Sweat was coming onto her now. The compilation of the bodies was creating a great heat that was hitting her full front, and she felt like she would have to sit down soon.

"Don't worry, I am," Henry said, not noticing how red she looked. He pushed a button, and slowly his chair started to climb up the wallpapered wall, a little jerky and a bit slow, but it was moving, and it didn't stop until it reached the top, curving so that the railing for the machine hung over flat ground instead of a step.

Will let out a low whistle and hurried to help Henry out as Cecily parted the crowd with his wheelchair. "It actually works, Henry. Down as well?"

"If it can go up, Will, I'm pretty sure it can come down," Cecily said pointedly, though Henry looked just as pleased as punch. He barely noticed that Will was once again questioning his invention.

"How do you like it, Charlotte? I'm going to make another one for the stairs leading upstairs and all about, and maybe even up the stairs to the Institute. Doesn't that sound absolutely wonderful, dear?" Henry said, leaning out of his chair.

Charlotte couldn't comment. Suddenly her head was spinning, everything was spinning and out of focus, her stomach was paining her, and she felt herself sink as she blacked out.

Will, without a word but with a look of alarm, hurried to take Charlotte from the weak arms of a determined Callida. Tessa let out a gasp of alarm; Gabriel and Gideon went pale as Henry said, "Charlotte?"

Bridget and Cyril immediately sped away, Lucy calling as Sophie hurried frantically away to the infirmary room, "I'll get 'em Silent Bruthers!"

Will gently eased Charlotte into a more comfortable position and heaved her up so both his arms were holding her weight. She was an awfully small thing, but she weighed as much as she looked, one arm hanging around her stomach as Will, biting his lip, hurried to the infirmary room without a word, his heart pounding inside his chest. Charlotte, the woman who practically raised him, was out like a light, and it worried him. He had taken her visit from the Silent Brothers as seriously as she had, and hadn't thought that something like this would happen. He could only hope that this wasn't as serious as it looked as Cecily darted ahead and opened the doors with the help of Sophie, who looked deathly pale as he hurried through, the sound of Henry's frantic chair being wheeled forward behind him.

Sophie hurried in front of him, having more speed as her step was quicker and her weight not burdened, and she came to the first bed and began fluffing the pillows with a franticness that was prone only to her having. Her face was red and her voice choked and worried as she said, "Oh, Charlotte, wake up, please!"

Will didn't say a word as he gently set her back on the cot and stood back, allowing Tessa and Sophie to fuss over her as Aunt Callida made her way around the cot to her niece's left side. Gabriel had moved Henry's chair forward, seeing as his pushing was much faster than Henry's was, and he brought Henry to the right side of the bed between Tessa and Sophie, who were awfully panicked.

Henry reached forward, his face paper white, and he took her frail hand and gripped it warmly in his own, tapping on her arm slightly, whispering her name.

Gabriel and Gideon and Will stood back, knowing there was nothing more they could do. The Silent Brothers were being summoned; they had nothing to do except wait for the news.

They slowly started to make their way out when the huge, clanging doorbell of the Institute came rattling through, filling the air with the noise of a visitor present.

"The Silent Brothers already?" Tessa said. She looked about and saw that Lucy and Cyril and Bridget had disappeared, probably knowing that Charlotte would be taken care of much better by her and Callida and Sophie than themselves and that they were just taking up space where there was already a crowd of people around the Consul's bed. "Can someone get them?"

Sophie sniffed and straightened. "Come along, Gideon," she said. "I shall fetch the rags and hot water and you would, please, get the door."

Gideon nodded, himself looking on the greyish side, and nodded again for the boys to join him. They left half-glad, half-worried, Will especially. He was sweating, his hands all clammy, and there was a feeling of dread in his stomach. Surely the last time the Silent Brothers were here, just yesterday, they would have found if something was wrong with Charlotte. His hands were tightening and untightening into fists. They had failed in finding something wrong, and now Charlotte was down. But Jem . . . Jem would have discovered if something had been wrong with her . . . Jem was too kind, too thorough to do something so horrible as leave Charlotte untended when she was ill. . . It must be something that had just come about that day. Will was sure now. Jem might still be new to the Brotherhood, but he would have not made a fatal mistake to put Charlotte's and the baby's lives in danger.

* * *

They hurried to the door, and Will opened it to discover that it was not any Silent Brothers in their parchment paper robes but a wiry, short old man and a terribly annoyed looking young man who had a hook nose and blond hair that was tossed about in every way on the steps. Behind them was a carriage at the gate, which was being led toward the stables by Cyril.

"Pardon?" Will said, confused.

"Is this the London Institute?" the man asked, his accent sounding very strong.

"Yes," Will said. He cocked his head. "I don't remember you from any of the meetings I've attended. Name, please."

"Posh," the man said, looking greatly annoyed. The young man sighed and said, "Father, let us move in. This footman is ill-equipped-"

Will held up a hand, black runes gleaming against his skin. "Footman, obviously, aren't I?" He turned to Gideon and Gabriel and said, "It looks to be some of your relatives."

"And you've insulted them, haven't you?" Gabriel said, sounding like he knew the answer already, as Gideon quickly moved past the two to the door to welcome in the men.

"Quite the contrary. That old man called me a footman," Will said. "He has some nerve."

Gabriel peeked around the door and then settled against it, looking a bit wide-eyed and like he wanted to punch Will. "Of course he has some nerve. That's my great uncle Wallace."

"The blond one? How OLD is he?" Will said, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't try to act stupid, Will," Gabriel said, scowling. "The elder one is my great uncle Wallace. The younger one is my first cousin Alexander."

Both snapped their mouths shut as the grand door opened and Gideon calmly allowed Great Uncle Wallace and First Cousin Alexander into the hall. Both were dressed in smart overcoats with high boots and red hands, their coattails stiff from the wind and rain.

"London is most depressing compared to great Austria," Uncle Wallace said.

"Of course, Uncle Wallace," Gideon said complacently. He drew to Gabriel's side and grabbed his arm before he could quickly make a get away from a formal introduction to the relatives. Gabriel could only inwardly groan when he realized that this would be the first of many and why shouldn't he and Gideon just stand by the door the entire week, maybe have Sophie sit for them for long lengths of time?

Gideon straightened and said in a polite, be-careful-Gabriel voice, "Uncle Wallace, you remember Gabriel."

"Gabriel. Yes. The youngest," Uncle Wallace said. Gabriel swallowed a grimace and shook the old man's hand too violently, making the old man take his hand away and wave it around, frowning. "Such good grip," he muttered.

"Gabriel, our cousin Alexander," Gideon said, and the blond man, who was about forty, perhaps, reluctantly shook Gabriel's hand and looked like he did not want to come to his cousin's wedding at all.

Will cleared his throat, making the four men turn to see him leaning against the wall of the hall, his legs bent slightly, his smile slightly malicious in form.

"William Herondale," he said as he stepped forward, shaking each hand in turn. "Not a Lightwood, Inhabitant of the London Institute, and Shadowhunter." He looked fairly adamant on making that last one stick as he said quietly, "I'm going to go check on Charlotte."

"Now, I require the seeing of three people. Your father, your sister, and your bride, Gideon," Uncle Wallace said once Will had disappeared, making him not look so angry. The lines in his face were creased and his hands, which were folded over a cane, were red and lined with grey and green. "I hear she was once a mundane?"

"Yes," Gideon said quickly, ready to stay off the subject of his father and sister for as long as he could. "She Ascended at Christmas."

"How has her training been going?" Uncle Wallace said, and Gideon let out a half-laugh and said, "Why-why don't we continue this conversation in the sitting room?" Gabriel looked surprised at this. Gideon was never so anxious or worried looking or sounding. He was the calm, collected brother, whose temperate attitude was never mussed with. But now he looked shaken, and Uncle Wallace didn't seem to notice as he allowed his nephew to lead him to the sitting room.

**Look at all the stuff happening. BWUHAHAHAHA. But dear, poor Charlotte. :(  
**


	5. Jem and Jessamine

**_Soli Deo gloria_  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Infernal Devices. ****Things get heated up, and NO ONE TOUCH JESSAMINE SHE'S MY GIRL. **Oh, and to corndoggies13, Sophie and Gideon's wedding is happening before Tessa and Will's wedding because, well, they were engaged first! 

Will came bursting through the infirmary doors, making Tessa stand up straight and Sophie look hopeful and frantic at the same time.

"Are the Silent Brothers here?" Sophie said quickly, hitching up her skirts and hurrying to Will. The worry for Charlotte was etched all over her face, making her scar more prominent among the lines.

"No. But you've got some visitors. At least, your fiance does," Will said.

Sophie raised a confused eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"There's a great uncle Wallace and a first cousin Alexander in the sitting room with your husband-to-be and Gabriel. You might want to hurry to them. I fear they'll think not very highly of us with no women over there," Will said in a quiet voice.

Sophie sighed and looked from Charlotte to Will, inwardly conflicted between making a good first impression on some of her future relatives and parting from the side of her beloved friend.

"Go on, Sophie," Henry said, looking ghastly pale but still calm from his seat next to Charlotte. "She has plenty of people fussing over her."

Sophie sighed and without looking at anything except the floor, which was spotless from Lucy's ruthless cleaning, hurried past Will, who was looking at the floor as well, toward the doors and hurried out to find the men.

She was just about to turn a corner to the sitting room when there was another loud ring at the door, and Sophie took in a deep breath and determined not to lose her temper as she turned, and, catching her skirts, said, "That better be the Silent Brothers or these relatives better learn to send notices beforehand."

But, of course, when the door was opened by her, as Cyril was still busy detangling the horses and baggage of Uncle Wallace and First Cousin Alexander, there was five Shadowhunters wanting in, all cold and smiling, which made Sophie feel a bit more tense as she allowed them in. While their backs were still turned, their eyes taking in the lush carpets and the angel statues, Sophie leaned against the door and took a deep breath, and knew one thing for sure:

This was going to be a very long week.

* * *

There was no word from anyone outside the infirmary to anyone inside the infirmary, and so Tessa, while patting a warm wet rag to Charlotte's forehead, which was warm with what must be a fever, looked hurriedly to the doors every chance she got. She was sure Will was looking the same, wondering where on Earth the Silent Brothers could be and where Sophie was.

Will sighed and said, "I'm going to see where Sophie is. They're all probably suffering through awkward silences without me," and he hurried away. Tessa watched him as he left. She knew why. He had to get out of the room. He was powerless to do anything, not knowing what was wrong with Charlotte, and he knew that an applied _iratze _would not be able to fix her, and he couldn't stay where he couldn't breath, where all he could do was wait. At least now he could go up and down the hall and not make anyone nervous.

There came the doorbell again, the clanging large bell like one from a cathedral. Like she had done the last three times it had rung, Tessa straightened, looked anxious, and hoped above all hopes that it was the Silent Brothers. But the last three times it had all been Lightwood relatives seeking audience with the two betrothed and Gabriel.

Cecily sighed and said, looking to Tessa, "Go get the door, Tessa. You need some fresh air."

"What?" Tessa said, looking confused.

"You're flushed. Get out before you need a bed," Cecily said in a demanding, maternal tone. She bucked her head to the door and Tessa sighed, gave Charlotte one more wishful look, and then hurried to the doors as fast as her skirts could allow her.

The witchlights that doted the walls of the halls seemed to have dimmed, or maybe it was later than Tessa thought. It was past the time for lunching, that was for sure, but she was not sure what the time had been when she and Will had gotten back. A look at a grandfather clock outside the front door told her it was past two. And yet her stomach was not hungry but felt awfully hollow. But she barely paid it any mind as she opened the door.

Outside was the carriage containing the Silent Brothers; Brother Enoch and two more Silent Brothers behind him had their heads bowed, their hands folded together in a praying motion, as Brother Enoch said, _Miss Gray. We have received another call. Who needs our attention?_

"The Consul. Charlotte. She has fallen and is with a fever," Tessa said breathlessly, a lump growing in her throat as she walked out to the small stoop and stood back to allow the Silent Brothers to enter the Institute. She turned away from them as they went inside, sure that they could find the infirmary themselves.

The door closed and she turned to see that there was one Silent Brother who hadn't joined the rest in their procession to find Charlotte. She could see tendrils of his dark-and-light hair flying about in the breeze, which was coming in from the river, casting a scent of London over the entire courtyard. His head was bowed as it was supposed to be but she could see, upon taking a step forward, the red marks under his eyes, which were closed.

"Good afternoon, Jem," she said quietly, taking another step forward.

_Good afternoon, Miss Gray._ And despite him calling her Miss Gray, sending a pang of helplessness through her, she smiled to think that he wasn't reprimanding her like Brother Enoch did when she and Will didn't call him Brother Zechariah.

"Charlotte had fallen," Tessa found herself saying. "Henry built himself a chair that goes up and down the stairs and he was testing it when she just fell. I think she's been awfully stressed."

_She fell unconscious?_ Tessa thought then that Jem sounded concerned.

"Yes. She hasn't woken up. She . . . feels so warm. Feverish. Like her body is overheated," Tessa said, waving a hand as she tried to think. She looked back up to see that Jem was turned away from her, hiding his face from her. That pained her, that he wouldn't let her see his scarred face and what he was thinking. He was thinking his own thoughts, not telling her anything in her mind. And she felt like she was waiting for an answer, holding her breath as she waited for him to talk.

_How far along is she?_ His voice echoed in her head. A reasonable, solid sounding question.

"The baby is due next month," Tessa said. It was strange. If her aunt Harriet heard her discuss baby due dates with young men like maybe Will, why, her aunt would have fainted and then when she had come to, she would reprimand her niece for doing such a thing that you can't do in society. But Jem was a Silent Brother; a medical physician in training. And it was a mutual subject, something they could both talk about without having something rub the wrong way and make the other remember things they wish they could and things they loved but couldn't have anymore. "Do you think that it is the baby doing this?"

_More than likely, yes. Charlotte is usually so well that this could be an obvious reason._

"I suppose so," Tessa said, and then she noticed something. It was a feathery, grey floating waft, shifting slightly in the wind, making Tessa narrow her eyes and start to go down the stairs, her eyes no longer looking to Jem but to the wisp.

_Tessa?_ Jem looked up and saw that she was approaching something next to the great worn steps, a curious look on her face. She was looking like she was staring at thin air until he saw something. It was a something like smoke, moving about in a way that didn't seem like it should exist.

_Is that a ghost?_ Jem said, sounding surprised but curious.

Tessa carefully took her eyes off the wisp to see Jem looking interested at it. He saw it too. But she didn't know what a ghost looked like; she had never seen one, but Jem must have.

"You might have better judgement for calling it what it is than I am," Tessa said, looking back to it. It seemed to take more shape. A long, torn dress. Dark blood splattered across the top of the bodice of a woman's body, not too old, not quite matured. A head with shorn hair that looked light, maybe blonde if the person was alive. Her eyes were deep, though, and her lips dark as she opened them and said, "It's about time. I was wondering when you were going to visit me."

Tessa looked alarmed, not sure who this was, but then Jem said,_ Jessamine. Is that truly you?_

Jessamine's lips softened into a sad smile. "Yes. Not alive, but as alive as I can be." She looked to the steps and patted them, her hand slipping right through them. "I died here, and so here I remain, though I can move a little bit." She let out a slight laugh. "Maybe next year I can make it to the door. Do you think I can still open it, seeing as I died a Shadowhunter?"

Jem didn't say anything for a moment, and Tessa's heart sank when she realized that he couldn't open the door. The runes had been taken away and he was covered in ones from the Brotherhood, not from the Clave. _Perhaps, Jessamine, though I am not one to know._

"Tessa, you should, you've read the Codex even more than Charlotte," Jessamine said, turning to Tessa.

Tessa was still overcome with the fact that Jessamine was there in front of her, looking pale and grey and floating a few inches off the ground. She gulped back the lump in her throat from looking at her and remembering. Remembering her brother, and how much of a liar he was, and how Jessamine had gone and married him. Remembering how Aunt Harriet had lied to her, how her whole family had been a lie, how Nate had tricked her, and how Jessamine had taken his side. And then she remembered how sad Jessamine had been in her jail cell, how short her hair was and how she looked coming out of the carriage that day that she herself had been kidnapped.

Tessa shuddered and said, "I don't remember reading about that."

Jessamine frowned. "Look it up for me, please. Honestly, I could use some social interaction, and since the mundanes would fall over from fright if they saw me, I've only got you. Will's been the only one to see me, and I thought him not very caring in that-"

"Will has seen you?" Tessa said aloud.

"Oh, yes. On Christmas. When I was the most lonely in the snow. He came out and he talked to me. And I hear you're engaged to him now. Inevitable, I suppose. When's the wedding? Not too far away, I think, since it's been three months already and Will likes things as soon as possible."

"In June," Tessa said, still a little dazed. Her eyes turned from Jessamine to Jem, who was once more looking at the stony gray ground, and her heart pained for him.

"Oh, that's nice. A nice summer wedding. That is, if you didn't live in London. The reception will be here, won't it? I expect so. I hope you have roses, they're particularly lovely. There will be a lot of people here, won't there? Maybe someone will condescend themselves and come to talk to me," Jessamine said, shrugging. She looked at the ground, wringing her hands together in a tight clasp. "Though, of course, I wouldn't expect them to. Shadowhunters or anyone for that matter don't like being associated with ghosts. Bad reputation. That is why I was not surprised when Will talked to me."

A few seconds passed. "He was here for my last moments, you know."

Tessa looked back to Jessamine, her heart still pained at everything. Jessamine plowed on. "I was speared by one of those horrible automatons. Bled to death before anything could really die on its own."

_I'm very sorry, Jessamine,_ Jem said quietly.

Jessamine sighed. "It cannot be helped, Jem. And Will explained everything to me. About Mortmain and his death and the death of his army and how - you almost died. And I'm really sorry about that, Jem. You're the one person in that Institute who deserved the most to live. I'm sorry, too, that you had to join the Silent Brothers. Don't they have any fun?"

Jem let out a little laugh. _They're awfully strict._

Jessamine nodded. "I thought so. I knew so." She straightened and said, nodding toward the stables, "People have been arriving and I haven't heard any names I know or have I seen anyone I recognized. What is happening?"

"Gideon Lightwood is marrying Sophie," Tessa said, finding her voice. It had been caught and she had pulled it out, making it crack slightly, though with a mild smile.

"Even with that scar? My, but he must like her," Jessamine said. "I supposed there was to be a reason people were coming in. Shadowhunters, right? I don't think Charlotte would allow so many Downworlders in the Institute."

Tessa quickly nodded, and added, "Has Will told you about Charlotte's new position?"

Jessamine nodded slowly, her head looking strange as it bobbed against her ghostly neck. "She deserves it. She-she saved me from having further punishment than just being sentenced to a cold, dark, lonely cell," Jessamine said. "She's earned it. That's definite."

"Yes. And have you heard that she and Henry are to have a child?" Tessa wondered, unsure as to how much of the things in the Institute came back to Jessamine.

"I am not very stupid, Tessa," Jessamine said. "I can hear you all when you go to and fro. And I've seen Charlotte. She's gotten awfully big; tell her black with straighter, thinner sleeves will make her appear thinner."

And Tessa wondered what Charlotte would think of her giving her fashion advice. She didn't want to startle her by telling her it was Jessamine who had told her this, and so she tucked away the information that Jessamine was still available to talk to them to tell Charlotte when she was up and well once more.

"Of course," Tessa said, and she looked back anxiously at the large Institute doors, wanting to get back to Charlotte.

"Tell me, Jem, why are you here? And your name isn't Jem anymore, is it?" Jessamine said.

Tessa offered her a slight glare. That was the thing with Jessamine. She was really in touch with her feelings, wore them on her sleeves; she was too blunt, of course, with Jem, but that was the Jessamine-way.

And Jem knew this, for his voice was still gentle as he said, _The Consul has appeared to have fainted. I am in training to be of use in the medical field. I have been called with Brother Enoch to tend to her. And my name is Brother Zechariah._

"How horrendous," Jessamine said breathlessly, though all her words were breathless. Tessa wasn't sure if she was horrified by Charlotte fainting or Jem's new name, which was quite different from James.

_Yes. So, I must be going._ Jem bowed to Jessamine, who bobbed, though looking paler than she was a minute ago, which was hard for her to do, and he headed up the stairs and through the door.

Jessamine turned to Tessa and said in a voice that was cold, "He has changed."

"You would change to if you were changed into a Silent Brother," Tessa pointed out.

"But he was warmer; now he isn't. He's so . . . cold," Jessamine said, looking back up at the steps. She turned back to Tessa and said, "I know that feeling."

Tessa didn't know which feeling Jessamine was referencing to: the one that left them both not dead, or the one that killed them inside from a broken heart.

* * *

The halls were all familiar to Jem. Every painting, rug, statue, passage, and doorknob were all embedded in his memory. He had run down these halls to catch Will from doing something very naughty a number of times. He had run to hurry to training, then to supper before Charlotte got that little look on her face at him being late.

He hadn't run too much as he grew older, having been given a cane from Henry who saw how he stumbled and had to use the walls to help keep himself balanced. But there was no running playfully, brightly down these halls for him anymore. Those days were over.

The days of using a cane were over as well. No longer did he need something when he was healed now, though he could hardly call it that. It was like he was stuck in limbo; being a Silent Brother allowed him to survive, but it was still barely a life. A life you lived. This life he didn't. But the alternative was worse.

He plodded down the halls, not even having to look up to know that the doors in front of him were the ones to the infirmary. He didn't knock as he opened one door and looked up slightly to see what was before him.

Charlotte was lying, her eyes closed, against the cold cot, her shoes sticking straight up from where they were at the foot of the bed. Henry was beside her, holding her hand, rubbing circles into it, looking anxiously back to Brother Enoch, who was touching her carefully in sensitive areas around her stomach, looking for something. A woman was by Charlotte, one that Jem could recognize to be her aunt Callida.

The only other person there was Cecily. She was sitting on the cot across from Charlotte, her hands white as they held onto the foot-board, her blue eyes stuck on the scene before her.

In the few weeks that Jem had known Cecily, he had never seen her so helpless, so confused and scared.

She looked up and caught sight of him, letting out a slight gasp, alerting Henry and Brother Enoch to his presence.

"Oh, Jem," Henry said, the sight of the boy making him relieved.

_His name is Brother Zachariah, Mr. Branwall,_ Brother Enoch said, sounding as exasperated as he could be.

"Oh, sorry, Brother Enoch," Henry said, stammering, as the Silent Brother waved a hand at him and summoned Jem. Together, the two thought thoughts for only the two of them, making Aunt Callida and Henry, along with Cecily, feel completely powerless as they were left in suspense as to what was wrong with Charlotte, whose face was pale and dark hair lay about her head like a dark frame.

Brother Enoch finally stuck his hands back into his sleeves, clasping them together as Jem did the same. Henry looked beyond anxious now, almost terrified, as Brother Enoch said, _The child, Mr. Branwell, is putting severe pressure against the body of the Consul. It seems that the pain is due to labor signs._

"Labor signs?" Henry said, looking alarmed. "But-but she isn't due for another month," and he looked at the large mound on top of her, almost trying to will Charles Buford to stay there, please, and to stop hurting his dear mother.

_Extreme stress has mounted on top of her, especially with her new position as Consul,_ Brother Enoch said in a patient, otherwise blank voice._ It seems that this has put a severe strain on the baby, making soon delivery inevitable._

Henry's face was as white as a sheet. "What?"

_Surgery would be the way do this, seeing as it would be easier than waiting it out as usual, with possible badly ending results._ Brother Enoch sounded too calm for Henry, whose heart was pounding something awful as he looked at the Silent Brother, who looked like he had just diagnosed a cold.

"Surgery? Oh no, not surgery," Henry said, looking pleadingly back to Charlotte. His Charlotte, cut open . . . it made him want to throw up, but he remained as calm as he could for the sake of Cecily, who was just across and taking everything in, and Jem, who was a reminder to Henry not to go completely mental in front of Brother Enoch, for Brother Enoch didn't like that at all.

_It is necessary, I am afraid. Brother Michael shall assist me. The others shall prepare._ Brother Enoch turned from Charlotte to Henry. _I have decided to wait perhaps a couple more days. To see how she comes along. If it indeed is imperative to operate, we shall do it then. If you allow us, Mr. Branwell._

Henry looked from Brother Enoch with a pained expression to Charlotte, who looked so low and sick there on the medical cot. It had been so nice to learn that he would be a father. Even having his ability to walk taken away had not lessened his cheerful spirit. But to think that his dear Charlotte would have to be operated on, just to get out little Charles, when this was supposed to have been going so normally; this information had stunned him, and he looked to Aunt Callida for help.

"What do you think, Callida?" Henry said weakly.

The old woman opposite him had her lips set into a thin line as she looked at her niece. Something, Henry was sure it was determination, crossed her face, and she said firmly to Henry, "I suggest we do as the Silent Brother says."

Henry was quiet for a moment, but then looked to the Silent Brother, who had indeed been waiting silently for an answer. "Yes. What you have decided, we'll do that."

Brother Enoch nodded and then turned to one of the Silent Brothers. day. _Brother Michael shall stay here and monitor Mrs. Branwell's health. He shall alert us when it is necessary for surgery. _Brother Enoch turned back to Henry and all the other Silent Brothers fell behind the Head Brother._ Thank you for your time, Mr. Branwell. Good day. _

Henry watched the Silent Brothers depart, Jem taking the back of the departing party, and as Henry turned back to look at Charlotte, he saw Cecily's slightly longing look toward the doors. He knew the same pain she had; how they wished that Brother Enoch had decided that Jem could stay and watch over Charlotte instead of Brother Michael.

**MY CHARLOTTE. MY GIRLS. AGHHHHHHH. Please review!**


	6. Oh, Demonsssssss

**_Soli Deo gloria_  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Infernal Devices. Honestly, thank you for the lovely reviews! Best. People. Ever!**

Will's shoes were covered in horse filth and mud. He hadn't taken care to keep them clean as he raced through London, stopping occasionally to look at a piece of paper that had been in the mail today. It had scraggly lines and pinpoints and markers set about in black ink, the quill having been wielded by Ragnor Fell.

Only Charlotte knew that a map of points of where that carriage had been spotted had been called for. Nobody had paid much attention to it as it was addressed to her, but Will had known what it was and had torn it open that morning since Cyril came in with the mail.

Nobody in the Institute knew he was out and about. Everyone was busy inside the old church, preparing for the wedding. It was Tuesday, and just yesterday Charlotte had woken up a bit confused but relieved when she saw that Henry had waited through the entire process for her to come back to him. Everyone had gone in to see her, inquire of her health, and everyone had learned of the plan of the Silent Brothers. Will had found out by heading back into the infirmary and, upon noticing that there was a Silent Brother that, after another look, was confirmed to not be Jem, asked aloud in a strange voice, as he did not take his eyes off the Silent Brother and had to have his voice carry over his shoulder to Henry, "And who is this?"

This all had only fueled Will to get out of the Institute. He hadn't told Tessa he was going, for he wasn't taking Gabriel or Gideon with him. They were busy playing frantic hosts as people kept popping into the Institute, whether they were Lightwood relatives or old family friends they had been acquainted with for centuries. The story of Benedict Lightwood and Tatiana Blackthorn's husband was told so many times that Will had memorized it, and so even did Sophie and Cecily, as they were there to volunteer the story to wondering relatives who weren't able to capture the attention of either of the brothers.

Will needed to get away from the Institute. He hadn't brought himself to go and see Jem as a Silent Brother in the infirmary, though Tessa had come and found him in the kitchen, snacking on chocolate and glaring at Bridget as she danced about with her wailing, forlorn voice, and had told him. She had touched his arm, told him about Jem and how they had found Jessamine. That had made Will smile a little bit to himself. At last, she finally had someone else to talk to.

He was out of breath, but he didn't stop hurrying. The burn felt good to him. He hadn't felt a good burn in a while, and it pleased him as he hurried to a stables, where the map said that Ragnor had found that that carriage had been there before.

The disgusting, hay-covered stables sent up a stank as the horses shifted, mundanes cleaning up after them with their pitchforks. There was a smithy and smoke coming up from it, the smell of the fire mixing with the horse filth. Will wasn't perturbed by such a stench, though. He lived in London. He practically lived in a horse stall.

A brush of glamour covered him as he worked about, trying to see if there was a carriage or someone that he recognized from his bar trips about the city. Apparently, Ragnor had said that there had been a faerie who had spotted the carriage and hung around for a while there.

Will spent nearly ten precious minutes trying to find a mischievous little faerie, but there was none, and he bristled and headed back into the streets. His feet were now mightily sore, seeing as he hadn't gone out for a couple of days, and he was sure he would have blisters. He was not, however, in enough pain to stop and apply an_ iratze_. The pain let him focus on something he could control, unlike this carriage hunt. He was sure that the carriage was a demon carriage, for the Downworlders would not try to plow him and Tessa down. There had been no activity hereabout that had told him that any one of them wanted either him or her dead. Besides, he had gotten a sense of demonic activity that was too strong to be from a vampire or warlock or werewolf.

He was about to set foot into the market area when he saw it. It was plowing through the stalls, running through them as though they didn't exist, and nobody noticed. Sometimes it both annoyed and fascinated him how the mundanes just couldn't see things like this. How they just walked about and scowled and scolded and argued over the price of turnips when there was a carriage pulling through a stall full of cabbages with nary a thought about it.

He was instantly running through the streets, pushing some people out of the way out of habit, plowing through, not even bothering to hold onto his hat, which flew off, leaving his black hair to go tossed about in the wind, but he didn't care. He was intent to get that carriage, his lips pressed into a fine line, as he flew forward.

The horses that pulled the black carriage were probably demon horses. He could tell from the way they bucked forward, and beneath their flaps, Will noticed, as he came behind the carriage, almost ready to catch hold of it, were red eyes, fiery, and they let out snorts, casting dark smoke from their nostrils, as they kicked up their fine legs and dashed forward, pulling the carriage faster ahead, and Will threw himself to the back of the carriage, letting out a chuckle which was breathless when he realized that he was riding the back of the carriage now. He let the wind fill him as they rode through London. He kept a hand safely attached to the carriage, sure that he was not going to let go. If he did, he might get pulled under the carriage, and nobody would be able to find him, what, with the mundies not seeing him and none of the Shadowhunters knowing where he was. Maybe a warlock would find him and somehow find a reason to pity him and drag him back to the Institute.

The carriage swerved, and Will avoided the fine wheels from catching a hold on his coattails as they drove through an alley which was filled with steam, hanging laundry, and several bits of tossed trash that were being searched through.

Will, to his surprise, saw that he had never been in this part of London. Of course he had been in the slums and near the Thames, which smelled something awful, but never in this district. But, as always, he just straightened and took in the view as he held on tight to his ride.

The answer to his question of where the hell they were going came about as the carriage came to a sudden stop outside a series of workhouses that had long, narrow chimneys spewing more smoke and choking air into the city. It was the afternoon, and so everyone was in the disgusting workhouses, working their fingers to the bone making fabric and cheap thread, and not even an overseer was outside as Will slipped off the carriage and ran a few steps until he was outside one of the workhouses. He straightened and leaned against the wall as he turned to look around the workhouse as the occupants of the carriage fell out onto the cobblestone road.

It was strange, Will decided, that the demons were trying to dress like mundies. Wearing coats and high end jackets and boots with trousers, they looked almost human. From a distance, anyway. But no, these figures were demons. There were three covered in scales, black eyes, fangs that were covered in dripping drool, black ichor, and human blood. Their fingers had scaringly long fingernails covered in grime, their hands with multiple fingers. Their legs were covered in spikes, their faces with no noses but long, arrowhead shaped ears.

One went to the back of the carriage, and said in a husky, throaty voice, _"There was ssssomething on the back."_

_"Where do you ssssuppose it could be now?"_ another said, his voice hissy like a snake.

The other said, _"Well, it is gone now. Hurry up, before they start without usssss,"_ and the first one stopped examining and sniffing and licking the back of the carriage and hurried after the other two demons to one of the workhouses.

Will crept out from next to the workhouse he was hiding behind and hurried after the doors to the demon den as fast as he could, catching the door that one of them was closing with the tip of his fingers. His muscles tensed and he quickly became still, listening to see if one of them noticed that it had not closed all the way. But none of them came to investigate it, so he took out his stele and neatly applied a rune to the door, creating a one-way window into the wood. He dared to not enter the place when he knew that three had just entered, a quantity even he couldn't be able to face entirely on his own.

He put his stele back into his pocket and leaned forward, his legs bent slightly as he put his hand to his gear, ready to grasp his seraph blade at any time.

He could see through the window several backs of creatures, all turning around a wall. There was several, all blood and sewer colored, standing guard, with fierce teeth and nasty warts and long fingers and slithering, snake-like tongues. He couldn't hear anything that was going on, and he couldn't get too close, with so many guards. Too many of them, and though Will was always up for a challenge, even he now sighed and knew that this was just too many for him to attack by himself.

He slipped away, slipping the sights and smells and everything associated with this place into his mind, trying as he could to remember it so that he could lead a pack of Shadowhunters here later on.

* * *

Will arrived late to dinner, having had to change because the dining room was going to be fairly packed, and he'd rather not look so ridiculous with all the Lightwood relatives and guests mingling and drinking wine and taking in and judging everyone as they walked through the door.

He brought Tessa with him. She had changed into a lovely orange-yellow dinner dress, with her neck lined with a chain from her necklace. She had her hair up and was even wearing gloves, though Will had discovered them and said, "Gracious, are we heading out to eat? I thought it was merely the dining room."

"Will," Tessa said, giving him a look as they headed down the hall.

"What? I thought the wedding was on Saturday. Do we have to stay dressed up for the entire week?" Will raised an eyebrow. "Nobody bothered to tell me this. I'm the last to hear about anything around here."

"It's fascinating, Will, that if there's the slightest change of anything, you think that you weren't invited to some secret meeting that decided the change," Tessa said thoughtfully as they came to the dining room door, which was opened by Lucy.

"Fascinating indeed, Tess," Will said as they entered the room. Both looked surprised yet impressed and cramped as they took in the place. The long dining table, which was so usually large, seemed too tiny as Lucy and Cyril hurried to seat people around it. There was a long red tablecloth covering the entirety of it, and it was set with elegant goblets and shining china and long, sleek silverware that lined each dish-and-bowl at each setting, complete with a lovely folded, pure white napkin at each setting. Tessa cringed to think of how much time Lucy had to have spent polishing all that silver. She used to spend Saturday afternoons with Aunt Harriet at their little kitchen table, shining silver with spit and polish and rags as laundry hung about the small kitchen, making the entire apartment steamy. She would have spots of polish over her old dress and when she went to bed, she'd wake up with terribly sore arms.

Charlotte was not there, though she had wanted to, seeing as she was the Consul and Head of the Institute, but Henry, Aunt Callida, Sophie, Tessa, and Will had made her stay in her own bed for at least one more day. Brother Michael now stayed wherever Charlotte was, and Aunt Callida could easily be found by her side most of the time. So it was Henry who was going to sit at the head of the table, but he looked a little pale and out of place as he played around with his silverware, took in his reflection, and sipped from his goblet.

"How are you doing, Henry?" Will said pleasantly as he took a seat next to Henry. Tessa sat next to him and Henry nodded to the both of them, though he didn't look at them as he did so. Tessa was sure that his eyes were looking someplace else, like his bedroom with his Lottie and baby.

"Well enough, I suppose," Henry said. He frowned, though, wrinkling the lines on his forehead. "Will, where were you this afternoon?"

Will raised a forefinger. "I was going to bring that up, but after dinner, where there isn't so many people around."

"You went out, didn't you?" Henry said, not looking daunted at all.

Will nodded. "Of course."

"To where?" Henry wondered, leaning forward.

Will shook his head and said, leaning over the table, his voice in a whisper, "After dinner, in Charlotte's study, with Gideon and Gabriel, Tessa and Cecily and Sophie. I'll explain. But I'd rather not have Great Uncle Wally hearing what I was doing, seeing as the Council thinks I'm too rambunctious, and the roast is coming out and pink, and I'd rather have it hot, if you don't mind, Henry."

Henry didn't look like he wanted to give up to arguing, so he just sighed and leaned his head against his fist as supper carried on around him. He ate as though he didn't notice that he was eating at all, and Cecily and Sophie had to lean forward and quickly tell him that his potato and greens were about to fall off of his fork.

Afterwards, while everyone was sipping tea and Lucy was having a high time navigating herself around the table, which was full to bursting, Will looked around warily, raising an eyebrow. It was only Tuesday, still four days until Wedding, and there was bound to be more Shadowhunters showing up. Maybe they would have to eat in intervals. Maybe they wouldn't eat at all. What if eating was just an inconvenience and they stayed in the parlor discussing Council politics or the training room fighting each other and throwing knives like deranged escaped insane asylum inmates? Of course, Will decided, he must be thinking of all the worst-case scenarios here.

But, he also knew that these were people who were associated with the Lightwoods. Benedict had always wanted to talk politics. Gideon and Gabriel practically lived in the training room, particularly Gabriel. Speaking of that, Will decided he might have Lucy keep an eye on his little sister, when Gideon nodded for Will to hurry up.

Will quickly got out of his seat and hurried to the study, where Cecily and Tessa were already sitting on the couch. Sophie was sitting in an armchair. Gabriel was leaning over the fire, ruffling his curls and getting the attention of Cecily, who scoffed, rolled her eyes, and turned away to look to Will, saying, "You know, Will, if you were to call a meeting, I'd suggest you actually showed up to said meeting."

"Which I did. Just late enough to create a grand entrance," Will said, nodding.

"How is your entrance grand?" Gabriel looked away from the fire and looked a little annoyed with Will.

"_I_ was the one who made the entrance," Will pointed it out like it was a fact that Gabriel had overlooked. "That's what makes it that grand."

Henry, in the place of Charlotte, who usually felt the brunt of Will's arrogance, felt it in her stead, being the other real 'parent' of the Shadowhunters in the Institute. He sighed into his hand as the door closed behind Gideon, who rubbed his hands together and turned to Will, saying, "And what is it you want to tell us, Will?"

"Demons, as usual," Will said. No one looked very surprised. "Well, what did you expect? I found a demon den in a workhouse out past the market district. The carriage went there and there's dozens of the demons."

"You went off, all alone?" Cecily said. She rolled her eyes and looked to the heavens. "Will!"

"What? And risk having you slow me down? Never, Cecy," Will said lightly. "Believe me, there was too many culminating into a den. You would have been scared senseless."

"Why are they meeting there? Did you hear anything?" Gideon asked.

"Their voices were too distorted, all mixed together. Like a different language, almost," Will said, his voice quiet and slow on the last word. "I knew I couldn't make it past the guards; there was far too many. I suggest that we get ready and head out and nab them, real quick, before the wedding. Keep it quiet; the guests don't even have to get involved."

Cecily straightened, her black hair surrounding her pale face like a wreath. She shrugged, shaking it, and said, "All right. When do you expect us to leave?"

"Gideon and Gabriel and I will head out in maybe half an hour, once we're out of our dress up clothes and into fighting gear," Will said. "To investigate and get a true lay of the land." He took several footsteps forward toward Cecily, who looked hardly intimidated by her older brother, who was heavier set and much taller than her, pointed a finger at her, and said, "You stay here. No getting out or sneaking away or anything."

Cecily looked away, her eyes darting to look at the fire across from her, and she whispered, almost to herself, "Of course I will do that. Makes sense."

"Cecily," Will said, his voice tight.

"Yes, dear caring older brother?" Cecily said in a sweet voice, her face cheering up as she brandished her biggest smile with shining white teeth at Will.

"Don't even think about it, Cecily," Will said, cocking his head and giving her a shining smile as well. The resemblance between them was so alike that if Cecily had just been a year or two older, she looked like she would have been Will's twin.

"You have no control over my mind, Will, so you can't really expect me to do that," Cecily said, looking unperturbed.

"I don't, and so that's why I'm employing Sophie," Will said, nodding to Sophie, who looked startled to have been called out, "to keep an eye on you."

"I am NOT a child, Will!" Cecily said just as Sophie said, "What?"

Will shrugged. "It's a plan, and unless you can actually stay here by yourself and not give in to being a lying sneak, it's what's going to be employed."

"I am far too busy, Will. I've got Charlotte to attend to and all these guests," Sophie said, looking flustered.

Gideon nodded, looking down to Sophie. "Yes. Either Gabriel or I should stay here, seeing as all these people are people we know. I'll stay."

"Gideon, don't do that," Sophie said just as Will said, "Don't play the heroic martyr, Gideon, and get out of the house."

Henry loudly cleared his throat then, just as Sophie, Cecily and Will were about to start arguing, and everyone looked to him because it was too surprising to see Henry try to take charge that one simply had to stare at him when he did so.

"Sophie, I'll stay with Charlotte. Her aunt Callida can help you, and it should go well. Will, you take Gabriel and Gideon and you three see what you can do. Take extra seraph blades, though, and . . . don't try to take on too many more than you can handle."

"It's all right, Henry," Will said. "Don't forget that we've got our own personal Silent Brother here."

Tessa felt like saying, "No, Will, we haven't," when Henry continued. "Cecily, please stay here and help Sophie with the guests." He looked at her with pleading, sympathetic eyes.

Cecily let out an injured sigh. "You all are against me, aren't you?"

"Yes. Our life jobs include killing demons, keeping Downworld under control, and keeping my little sister from having fun. You've guessed our ploy, Cecily. You're smart, I'll give you that," Will said smartly, walking over and ruffling her hair with his long hand.

Cecily ducked her head down slightly and, grumbling, looked to the fire, too far annoyed with everyone, including those who hadn't had the slightest role in her having to stay at the Institute and entertain guests.

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	7. Demon Den and Cecily Takes Control

_**Soli Deo gloria **_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Infernal Devices. I feel like I should apologize for my weird chapter updates but I don't feel like it. I REGRET NOTHING.**

Gideon, covered in his black, spidery, thick gear, looked around the workhouse that he, his brother, and Will were crouching against. He could see the spot that Will called out as the place the demons were hiding out, and he knew that he was right. He could sense the demonic activity and my, was there a lot.

They had been around the wall of the workhouse for nearly ten minutes, waiting for an opportune time to sneak into the place. There was still carriages coming streaming toward the workhouse, depositing demons and then hurrying away into what swirling demon realms the creatures had come from. It was safe to say that the meeting hadn't started, seeing as there was still the creatures heading inside.

"What do you think they're doing in there?" Gabriel wondered aloud, his voice as light as a breath as he talked. His hand was enclosed over his seraph blade, trembling, aching to get into action.

Will shrugged, looked serious for once. "I don't know. Do two Ys make sense to any of you?"

"It could just be a crest of a particular pack of demons, Will," Gideon said, "but you're right. It could mean something, maybe something in Latin."

"I feel like all those years of classes may have been in vain if we don't think of something, Gideon," Gabriel said. The wind coming in ruffled his curls, covering his forehead and making him look rugged.

"It depends how much you retained, Lightwood," Will said. He didn't allow Gabriel time enough to argue with him as he raised his hand, saying in a hushed voice, "That looks to be the last of it," and he took a step forward, but Gideon grabbed his shoulder and shook his head.

"Wait a few more minutes, just to be safe," Gideon said. His hold on Will's shoulder was tighter than he had thought it would be.

"But they could have started what party or meeting they're having in there. We could be missing important information," Will said.

Gideon raised an eyebrow. "I knew you valued knowledge, Will, but I thought you valued your life more."

"I don't like having my time wasted," Will said, jerking his shoulder out from under Gideon's grip.

"I'm in charge whether you like it or not, Will, and Henry will have my head if something happens to either of you," Gideon said. His hand withdrew from the thin air where it had been left and it went down to his side, ready to pick out his seraph blade at any time.

Will shook his head and looked away back to the workhouse. His voice was cold as he said, "As if Henry would ever have anyone's head. He could barely hurt a fly. It's hard to think that he is even a Shadowhunter."

"He's killed more demons than you have, Will," Gideon said, "and so have I, and I've been on more stakeouts than you have, and it's better to wait a bit before we head in."

Gabriel turned from his spot to look at the two other men, and he said, "Haven't we waited long enough? Your arguing takes much longer than you'd think."

"I could say the same of you, Gabriel," Gideon said, but he nodded just the same, a determined look in his eyes as he looked back to the workhouse, which was grey and dirty and perfectly ordinary looking. "Let's go."

The sun had disappeared into the grey clouds that hung over them as the three hurried to the workhouse. The door was locked, as they had anticipated, and Will leaned over the doorknob and applied his stele to the brass, etching a fine rune into the hard material, and the door was opened and they slipped inside after seeing there were no guards on their side of the doors, Will hurrying ahead, Gideon taking the rear.

The place they entered was like a foyer. It was the place where the people would wait for workers to drop from their jobs so they could take their places. There was a grey splintery desk to one side with a rickety old chair. There was a spiraling set of stairs that headed up, and Will set his hand against the wall and tried to look up into the stairs as the Lightwood brothers went to the doors that led into the factory. They each etched a rune into the doors, and windows that only worked one-way appeared, and Gideon turned back to Will. "Will, come over here."

Will had already taken a few steps up the stairs, which creaked under his feet. He looked to Gideon and said, "I was thinking of heading up here."

"Where the gallery probably is? Will," Gideon said in a warning voice that instantly made Will resolve from trying to go on his own way, for Gideon never got irritated or angry, and he sounded impatient with Will right now.

Will sighed and joined them and drew his own rune and hoped that none of the demons opened the doors, or else they'd be against three Shadowhunters, trying to push them into a wall.

Inside the machines that belonged to the workhouse were gone. There was the benches, though, old and worn, that seated many, many demons. Lights from torches set about in holders all about the open two-floor place covered the demons, making the place almost cozy but very dangerous feeling, even from behind closed doors.

Now Will had seen many holes in the wall with pockets of packs of demons hidden in nooks and crannies before, but even this made him raise his eyebrow and have the decency and reason to be looking alarmed.

"Bloody hell," Gabriel whispered under his breath.

"That's too many to attack, obviously," Gideon said, shaking his head.

Will felt like replying that while he was perfectly able to reason that out himself, that maybe Gabriel did need a little explanation, when a demon who looked to be in a position of high rank came to an old piece of furniture and banged against it with a wooden gavel, sending a sickening noise through the factory floor.

_"Brothers,"_ it hissed, its voice echoing in the drafty place. _"The time is at hand. The Consul is frailing. She shall fall. The time of the birth is within this week. The Branwell babe shall be ours for the taking."_

There was loud clapping and Will believed for the third time in his life that he may have misheard, the news that had reached him was so absurd.

_"It shall be ssssssweet revenge against the Consul for all the years of hunting against the Greater Dimension. To steal her offspring and desecrate the name of Shadowhunter. Just like Mortmain, the harnesser of our energies,"_ the demon said, its tongue slithering out of its mouth and licking its nose. Despite this revolting gesture, he was still revered as the demons clapped.

There were a couple of demons standing behind the doors the three Shadowhunters were looking through, and they turned slightly, like they had heard a strange noise behind them. But none of them had made a peep, not even Gabriel, who had felt the need to sneeze but had held it in. Gideon looked alarmed as one of the demons' clawed hands went to get the knob, and the three instantly sprang away, looked around quickly for someplace to hide, and they just flattened against the walls, Will cursing himself for finding himself in this sort of situation.

The demons opened the doors, casting them forward and blocking the view of the three Shadowhunters. Will felt like he could barely breath; there was excitement and tension and Gabriel right next to him, and he'd rather not breath the same air that he did.

The demons decided that whatever they had felt or thought they had seen was gone, and they closed the door to hear the head demon shout the praises of their pack and the crowd clapping and crowing in agreement.

The doors were closed, leaving the Lightwoods and Will to look at each other with startled looks. They listened further for a few more minutes, but there was not much more than more self-praise. There was no dates or times or weapons mentioned, but the three could only guess as they quickly exited the workhouse and hurried along the streets back to the Institute, thoughts and images blasting through their minds, Will's particularly. What had the head demon said, about desecrating the name of Shadowhunter like Mortmain had? Mortmain had been a mundane that had fiddled with Downworld. But yet Will's heart pounded at the thought of them stealing the baby Branwell, boy or girl as it would be.

There was one thing for certain: They had to get this information to Charlotte and Henry as soon as possible.

* * *

Will took one look at the party of carriages surrounding the outside courtyard of the Institute and said, "So this is what can happen in the time it takes to investigate a demons' den." He turned to Gideon and said, "You're popular."

"They're just here because of the family name. I barely know anyone here," Gideon said as the three hurried down the street to the entrance to the courtyard. It opened with ease as they passed by Shadowhunters without telling them a word. They did not feel like exchanging courtesy when they had important information that endangered the life of Henry and Charlotte's baby. Though, it was not like anyone reached out to them. Cyril was running back and forth, taking in baggage and helping ladies down from the carriages as their husbands stood by and tucked away their handkerchiefs and took in the sight of London.

The path to the door was covered with ladies' fine skirts and filled with annoyed voices. Will ducked away, getting interested looks from many of the females, but he didn't care. Normally he would have turned and given them a wink, which could be interpreted many ways, but as he had information and Tessa as his love, he didn't do that.

Cyril appeared at the front door, which Gideon held open for him. He was sweating and had discarded his long coat so he was wearing a dirty white shirt and long brown trousers, his boots covered in muck and his hair mussed about.

"Where can we find Henry, Cyril?" Gideon wondered after Cyril had nodded a thanks to him as he hurried down the hall, which was congested with people. Will raised a displeased eyebrow and he hurried after Cyril, the Lightwood men getting caught instantly by older relatives wanting the details, much like Great Uncle Wallace had.

Cyril walked into one of the many guest bedrooms and carefully set the trunk in his arms down on the floor. He turned to Will and said, "Sorry, Master Will. What were you saying?"

"Where is Henry? We've found important news that he has to know about_ now_," Will said. His hair was tossed about from the wind and running, and he was sporting a thin sheen of sweat. His clothes were ruffled and he was breathing heavily, looking far from being cool and confident as usual, making Cyril instantly feel alarmed.

"He's with the Consul, as he usually is, sir," Cyril said.

Will nodded and hurried away. He had thought that maybe Henry was working on his chair with Charlotte having Aunt Callida, or trying to control the Institute since Charlotte was out of commission, but he was still with her, and Will couldn't help but wonder who was running the Institute when it wasn't Henry.

He wasn't answered, though, and he was barely able to move in the crowd or try to get anyone out of his way, for his voice would have drowned in the cacophony of voices filling the hall. He could hear Gabriel try to get information as to where Gideon and he had run off to, and Sophie and Tessa were trying to answer him, and Lucy was trying to move people about and above all, in a loud, mournful wail of a voice, the passionate singing of Bridget overwhelmed everyone so that her voice echoed through the walls.

Will straightened and stopped in the hall, feeling overheated and deathly annoyed. He had always thought the Lightwoods a stupid air-headed bunch, but this took the cake and made his point. He decided then that there was no point in being polite if no one else around him was going to be so as well, and so he pushed earnestly through the crowd, intent on fetching Tessa and getting her out of this mess.

"Tess!" he called, his voice hard as he leaned against a wall and tried to look over the crowd, which was milling all about and not doing much moving at all.

"Will! You're back!" Tessa called somehow over the din.

Will's head whipped about, and he caught sight of her at the entrance to the kitchen. Her hair, which she had had up in a bun after breakfast, was falling in tangles and curls all about her head now, and her face was pink and she was looking over the place with a confused, overwhelmed look.

Will made his way to her and said, catching her hand, "We need to get Sophie and the Lightwoods, the Lightwoods we live with, and Cecily, and we need to head to Charlotte and Henry's bedroom."

Tessa looked alarmed. "Why for, Will?"

"Demons. As usual. Don't think that's too out of the ordinary," Will said. He was sporting a pale complexion, though, for _Mortmain, Mortmain, Mortmain_ was still pounding through his head as he looked at Tessa. He didn't want to bring up his name, though. He didn't want to alarm her more than she was now, and the mention of his name and how the demons knew it would indeed bring alarm.

The two turned to see that Cecily was coming determinedly out of the kitchen bearing two large pot lids that she had somehow taken from Bridget. Her lips were in a thin line as she pounded the two lids against each other, sending a clanging through the hall. It was not loud enough, but she continued, her voice emotionless but still sending an air of her irritation through the room, and the never-stopping clanging finally made everyone turn to her.

She brought the lids down and said, "Well, if that was all that it takes to shut you all up, I should have thought of it earlier. Now, be quiet. If you didn't know beforehand, the Consul is in a weak health and needs to sleep. Strange. One can't sleep when the entirety of the Lightwood clan is talking at the same time at the top of their lungs."

She pointed out an arm, her face lighting up with a red glow. "Go to the room where we keep the Downworlders when they come in. I don't care that I'm 'degrading' you by sending you. It's where we do the Christmas parties. It's the only place that can hold everyone. Go there and get in a line and by pairings and parties, you'll be led to your rooms. Stay calm, for the Angel's sake, or else someone will lose their head, and not me." Cecily's face was flushed, like she would really lose her head, her temper was so short, but she just gave them all a curt nod and turning to Will, said, "You're back. Good. Where is Gabriel? Did you find the demon den? What'd you hear?" She put her hands on her hips and said, "If you're not letting me go there, at least tell me what happened."

Will leaned a little forward so that they were at eye level. "Gideon and Gabriel are lost in this crowd, and I'm thinking Sophie as well. Let's get them to Charlotte and Henry's room and I'll bear all the details into light."

Cecily sighed and weaved her way through the crowd of Shadowhunters that Lucy and Cyril were trying to lead into the party room, and she picked up Sophie and Gabriel, who flushed at seeing her and said, "Oh. Cecily, that was wonderful commandeering."

"I know. I'm awfully good at it," Cecily said, shrugging. "We're heading to Charlotte and Henry's room to hear what happened on your little hunt."

Gabriel paled as the words ran through his mind once more, the realization of what the demon had said hitting him again, and Cecily cocked her head and said in a curious, almost strangely concerned voice, "Are you all right, Gabriel? You look peaked."

"No. Well, you look feverish," Gabriel said, trying hurriedly to change the subject.

"The room is full of people. Of course I look feverish," Cecily said. She reached out her arm and looked expectantly for him to take it.

Now, normally it was the man who offered his arm, to take the lead, but Cecily looked very insistent and Gabriel felt overwhelmed and tired, like he had just engaged in a large battle with a huge, ferocious pack of demons instead of just investigating a demon den in an old, falling-apart workhouse, so he just took her proffered arm gratefully and let her guide him to the Consul's bedroom door. Gideon, Will, Tessa, and Sophie were all there now, all looking ruffled and tossed, but all waiting for them.

"Who's knocking?" Cecily said, looking from each to another expectantly.

**Cecily is a badass. Any other argument is invalid. Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	8. Cecily & Gabriel Sitting In a Tree

**_Soli Deo gloria _****  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Infernal Devices. :)**

Gideon, as the eldest, reached out and sent a fine rap through the wood.

They all were quiet for that moment, straining to hear the answer coming through. It was a 'Come in' from Henry, and so Gideon opened the door and watched each enter into the room, taking Sophie's hand as he closed the door behind him and turned to the Consul and her husband and aunt.

Charlotte was sitting up in her ruffled bed, which had its coverlet and sheets tossed about with feather pillows. Henry looked surprised in his seat next to her, and so did Aunt Callida, who was stirring a cup of tea for far longer than it needed to be stirred.

Will strode quickly to the three as Charlotte said, "What happened?"

"Well, first of all, hope you're doing better, Charlotte. You haven't worsened since we were out, have you?" Will wondered, raising an eyebrow as he came to a stop at the end of her bed.

"I haven't gone down further. Brother Michael has mixed me a special potion. We're waiting for the effects of it to take to me," Charlotte said. She looked from the potion bottle sitting on a side table next to her bed and then looked to Brother Michael, who was standing in one of the corners, his head bowed, his hands in a folded manner, like he was praying.

"That's good," Will said shortly.

"How did your mission go? Did you locate the demon den once more? What information did you glean from the situation?" Charlotte said. She definitely sounded a bit better, if a little restless. She was never one to just sit still for so long. She was like a jumpy little bird, eager for the news that Will had brought to her nest.

"We found it. I remembered the place well enough," and Will recounted all that had happened to them. The effect of his words was immediate. He didn't stop as he talked, but took in the astonished expressions on their faces. Charlotte had turned as pale as Henry. Aunt Callida had stopped stirring her tea and was leaning forward, as if she didn't believe what he was saying about her future grand nephew or niece. Cecily's eyes had grown wide as she stood amongst the other five Shadowhunters, not to be down when they were all standing. Sophie let out a gasp and covered her mouth with her hand, looking from Gideon to Charlotte with horror in her eyes. Tessa looked directly at Will, her heart pounding, but he looked undeterred. He was not his usual cheerful self; no, he was so serious looking.

When he finished, he took a deep breath and felt like his throat was choking him. He needed a cup of water but for once didn't feel like bothering Lucy about it while she was running around, trying to keep the Institute under control.

"So what do we do?" someone said.

Charlotte laid back in her bed, looking flushed and perturbed and as giant as a wall. Her bump seemed so much larger under her sweaty clothes as she shrank back into the furniture. She, for once, looked speechless. Her hand went protectively over her baby, worried about what the head demon would do.

"Why would they want your baby, Charlotte?" Sophie said, looking fearful.

Will turned to her. "They had said the time is at hand, which means that they know that Charlotte will give birth soon and not next month like she planned. They want to kidnap Buford."

"Charles," Charlotte said, though her protest was weak and automatic.

"But what do they mean by desecrating the name of Shadowhunter?" Gabriel wondered aloud, speaking the thoughts of everyone there.

"Is their definition of desecrating the name of Shadowhunter taking the offspring of the Consul, leaving it to act like a mundane?" Gideon suggested.

"That wouldn't be as disgraceful as they'd hope," Will reasoned. "They'll want something absolute, something that will go on for generations, ruining the Branwell and Shadowhunter name."

"But what did he mean by Mortmain?" Cecily said, her voice sounding strange. "Stealing demon energies?"

"'Harnesser of our energies?' What is that supposed to mean?" said Gabriel.

Tessa had gone very pale. Her mind was reeling; a sudden force was against her, like she had been hit with an object to her stomach, or like when she had nearly been taken down by the demon carriage.

She held onto one of the posts at the end of the large four-poster bed, and Henry said, his voice concerned, "Tessa, are you all right?"

Will took a step forward, his hand reaching for her. He caught her right hand in his and then took her hand on the post into his other, and he said, leaning down slightly to be eye level with her, "Tessa, what is it?"

"Mortmain," Tessa let out in a breath.

"Yes. What about him?" Will said, prompting her.

She looked up from the floor and looked into his clear, concerned blue eyes. She swallowed and said, "Aloysius Starkweather."

"What about that old coot?" Will wondered, narrowing his eyebrows, obviously confused.

"He was my grandfather," Tessa told him in a quiet voice.

Will looked surprised. "Really? How? Wait, that would make you a Shadowhunter. . ." He shook his head to himself, though, murmuring, "But the demon would cancel that out."

Tessa took a deep breath, looked at the ground, and explained about the directness of her heritage to everyone. That is, everyone could hear her, but they were all fuzzy outlines in the corners of her eyes, background people. She told the story to Will, squeezing his hands tighter when the words were hard in coming out.

"So you think that they're trying to do what Mortmain did?" Will said. "With the Branwell baby, to make their own half-breeds?"

"Thank you, Will," Tessa said, at the name.

"I didn't mean that," he whispered. One of his elegant hands, crossed with white lines, went up, and he tucked a bit of brown hair back behind her ear.

"Do they have the spell?" Gideon wondered, from somewhere far away.

Tessa broke her gaze with Will and looked to the other Shadowhunters. She said, "They probably found it at the mountain. Maybe they were investigating why so much demon activity was there. They saw it and decided that they would use it to their advantage."

"That would definitely desecrate Charlotte and Henry. Charlotte is the Consul," Sophie said.

Henry nodded, weakly turning to Charlotte, who had closed her eyes, squeezing them, to keep calm as all this overwhelmed her.

"So there must be something we can do before there's even time for them to attack," Gabriel said.

Will nodded. "Exactly, Gabby. We attack them first."

Gideon nodded as well. "Shall we plan? Got a time in hand, Will?"

"I was thinking, on Friday? Just enough time to get all of this wedding stuff out of the way and then enough time to take a nice bath and get dressed and then off to Idris," Will said. He didn't seem fazed to be asked by Gideon what they should do. The role seemed to fit him well, the role of leader, and Charlotte couldn't help but feel the slightest surge of pride rise up in her at seeing him look so confident and comfortable in this position. "Besides, they've bound to have scattered. I have a fitting to attend to, dance lessons to have." There was a note in his voice though, like he was hesitant to do these things when there was a plot, a scheme against Charlotte. He looked to her and said, "I'm sorry, Charlotte. I'll send Shadowhunters to watch them. Keep a lookout. Do you mind sounding a command? As the Consul, they're bound to listen to you."

Charlotte nodded. "Of course, Will. Pen and paper."

The supplies were brought and Henry assisted Charlotte in managing to sit up, and she bit her lip as she wrote down a small little note in her neat cursive hand, and she finished her name with a curvy flourish, and she dropped back against the pillows like she couldn't sit up anymore, making everyone feel a little more concerned.

Aunt Callida put her hands on her hips, and turning to the six young Shadowhunters, said, "Time for you to leave now. It's getting late."

They looked reluctantly at Charlotte but they left just the same.

* * *

Supper was as miserable as could be. There was barely any room to seat or rest your plate. Lucy was overwhelmed, walking through the throngs of people with her sore arms raised over her head in order not to spill mashed potatoes or turnips on some unforgivable Lightwood relative. Cyril and Bridget had been employed in helping her, and Bridget, for once, was not singing. She was going around the room, her face a dark, pucy red, and when she went out, tray at her side, she was bristling and saying, "And the Consul said there'd be more help."

The six Shadowhunters who were not in Charlotte and Henry's room looked at everyone else with a sort of mutinous glare. Excepting Gideon, of course, who played the charming older brother with a sullen bunch of friends and brother about him, looking like they'd rather be anywhere but here.

They slipped out as soon as they could, except for Gideon, who was involved in a conversation with Second Cousin Arus and Aunt Felicity. Sophie was with him, looking a little fearful at the way they looked her over like she was a piece of meat.

Will sighed and looked down the halls, which were dim and empty. He turned to Gabriel, Tessa and Cecily and said, "I'm going to the library, see if I can find a little peace and silence."

"I think I shall join you. I've got a few chapters left of _Grievous Intentions_ to read," Tessa said.

Will smiled and offered his arm, and Tessa took it and they set off to the library, eager for some alone time together; such moments were few and far between these days.

"It's getting late," Gabriel said, clearing his throat once he realized that he and Cecily were the only ones left there. "Would you like to see how the Consul is doing, or-?"

"I'm sure we would have heard something if something even more terrible has happened to her," Cecily said. She let out a sigh and said, "Will did send those Shadowhunters to watch the place, didn't they?"

Gabriel nodded. He had been there when Will had sent the letters and had immediately received the proper response he wanted.

Cecily nodded. She shook her head, somehow wishing there was something more she could do to help with the demon den situation. Gabriel and Gideon and Will had already investigated. Shadowhunters were keeping an eye on it. She felt so utterly useless. She hadn't a clue what she should do or suggest to do to Will just to have her idea waved away. So there was only one thing she could think of to do.

"I'm going to the training room," she said, and she picked up her skirts and kept a quick pace as she went down the carpeted halls and made her way up a set of stairs. She could hear, practically feel against the floorboards as her feet left them, the footsteps of Gabriel coming after her. Despite the fact that it was Gabriel, she found herself sighing as she came to the training room door. She actually wanted to throw some knives, slice through wood and big pieces of clay with her stele, cut runes into the hard floor, work to actually do something.

She opened the door and did not go to face him. She went ahead into the room, with its wall covered in black targets and scars and nicks from generations of knives flying and finding home on it. Past the windows opening the place to the dark night pouring in from London, the floors with its exes and scrawlings and worn spots from duels frequently performed there. She went to the weapons board, which had every weapon any Shadowhunter could wish for. Spears, knives, seraph blades, pollaxes, daggers, swords, bows and arrows, crossbows, and far more.

Cecily grabbed a dagger and turned to the target bed. Her heart was pounding inside her, but she focused her breathing and her arm went back, and she launched the dagger.

It drove into the wall thickly, sticking there with one quick thump, with barely any waving about.

"Good shot," Gabriel said.

Cecily straightened and turned to him. Despite that he was Gabriel, she did not want to be with him. Not right now.

"Go away, Gabriel," Cecily said, shaking her head as she turned back to the target wall.

"You might want to turn to your side more, relax your arm a bit," Gabriel offered from behind her.

Cecily whirled on her heel and turned back to Gabriel with a venomous look. He was leaning against the wall that held the windows, which let in some beautiful starlight, with the moon glistening down along with them.

"Gabriel, please go," Cecily said, and her voice sounded far more fragile and raw than she wanted it to.

Gabriel looked a little concerned at her now. She turned away from him and grabbed a handful of small knives. One by one that wall was filled with knife tips, each one driven faster and harder into the old wood, cutting out a piece of the wood and letting it fall to the floor in a storm of sawdust and splinters.

"Cecily?" Gabriel said once she was done.

Cecily's chest was heavy, her breathing long and hard. She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to will the tears that were coming out despite herself to stay away from his sight. Never would she let him see her cry.

"Are you out of knives?"

She turned on her heel, her skirts turning and swishing with her, and she said hotly, her words spitting, "What if I am? Are you so fearful of me you're afraid to talk to me unless I am unarmed?"

Gabriel got off the wall and came to her. His hair, a ruffled curly mass of warm brown, looked so dark in the lighting. He had to bend just a little to meet with her, and she looked at him like she wanted to spit in his face.

"Cecily?" he said uncertainly.

"What?" she said. She hoped that her word was enough, and he was just leave her alone.

"Keep calm," he said, "and tell me what is happening to you, or I fear you will go on a rampage and throw a knife at me."

Cecily let out a breath and looked at him fiercely. She didn't want him to see her like this, falling apart, so she just reached forward and caught him in her arms. She felt his muscles beneath his thin shirt, and clutched him harder. Of course this was against all rules of society. That thought spurred her to hold him closer and closer, and her tears burst out and she soaked the shoulder of his shirt.

Gabriel didn't seem to mind that she was wetting his clothes with her tears. He was more shocked than everything. Nothing got so to Cecily, and this was scaring him and confusing him at the same time. Still, he wrapped his arms around her, almost tentatively, wondering what relatives would think if they walked in on this scene, but then he shook his head and leaned her against his shoulder. One of his hands went down her hair, which was let out of its braid and was going down her back in long black waves. It felt smooth against his hand, which had little white scars that rose up and down all over it. It was like sandpaper aginst silk.

Cecily suddenly let go of him and went to the window. She leaned her head against the glass pane. Dust was collected in the corners along with spiderwebs spun like lace. Spiders tiptoed around the wood, crawling down to explore the Institute. Cecily had once been through a time when the sight of a spider would have sent her running away, but now she looked it with bloodshot, blank eyes.

Gabriel came up beside her, close to the window as well. He was examining his hands, not sure what to say, hoping that maybe she would be the one to speak.

But she didn't say anything; she just looked dully out into the concrete jungle with bricks and filthy cobblestones out with the grey fog and some mundanes walking about, as calm as could be.

"Cecily," Gabriel said after a moment, his stomach turning from not knowing, "what is wrong?"

Her voice sounded far too calm after that, but Gabriel didn't say a word about it. "I watched when Charlotte fainted. When she was carried in. She looked so sick, Gabriel. Callida and Tessa and Sophie and Henry were there, but I froze. Because I didn't know what to do. I've always been the strong one, Gabriel. For my parents, I was their only child left. And I withstood a childhood with no brother or sister, and I was fine. Because I was strong then. But now, with other people caring, it makes me scared. That I'm not what I used to be. That I can't take care of things like I should be able to. A Shadowhunter should be able to move quickly, take over a situation in a matter of seconds. And all I could do was watch. Watch in horror. Everything was out of my hands, and I don't know what to do when that happens, Gabriel. I'm sorry if I inconvenienced you with my sobbing. It was improper and out of thin air, and I'm sorry."

His hand found hers so that they were folded together. "Every Shadowhunter has that one moment when there's nothing he can do. I had mine."

He looked away and Cecily looked to him. "What was that?"

He cleared his throat, looking like he wished he hadn't said a word. "The time I had that was when my father locked himself up in his office. The servants were disappearing and I just tried to tell myself they were taking advantage of my father being away to skive off. But I was lying to myself. Trying to comfort myself when I was the only one left. The only one to talk to, the one to tell me that things would work out. That Father would come out of the study famished but alive. But that didn't happen. And that scared me, Cecily."

Cecily was silent.

"And so what I did, what I finally did, was give up my pride and let people help. Your people. I came here, and you all came and helped me. That helped a bit, but the feeling of what I had felt, how vulnerable and fearful I had been, that comes back and haunts me. And I don't know how to get rid of it, but it's there, and you have to learn to live with it."

"That's awfully encouraging, Gabriel," Cecily said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, making her sound a lot like her brother.

"I know." His eyes crept to her face, taking in her pale pallor and her bright blue eyes and how worried they looked. Something hit him then, that he didn't want her to look so worried. "I just wanted you to know that you're not the only one to have to go through that."

Cecily sighed, and looked up and met his eyes. There was something there in them, something she didn't normally see in Gabriel. It could be called tenderness, but that was a foreign emotion that she didn't associate with Gabriel at all. He was interested, fascinated, dumbstruck, annoyed, but never tender. It fit with his eyes, though, like it should always be there.

"Thank you, Gabriel. You'll make someone a good husband someday," Cecily said. She gave him a cocked head and a smirk as she added, "Or a good advice-giver. Someone with mental patients."

"You're not mental, and I'd much prefer the husband part," Gabriel said, and that was when Cecily noticed he had a wide-spreading blush over his cheekbones. He wasn't one to like blushing, saying that it made him look too young, but it complimented his hair and eyes so well. Cecily was hardly to ever get bashful, so he was the one who took the brunt of embarrassment and change colors. Cecily might or might not have made him blush on purpose, for she was certain that they would get married one day. It was almost a practical fact that everyone in the Institute knew about: Everyone knew that one day it would be the two of them flying off to Idris to get applied runes on themselves. But in the meantime, there was time for Cecily to tease him about it. Secretly, she hoped that her teasing, which she knew he didn't take too personally, would somehow make him propose faster, maybe in the next two years or so. But she could wait. Wait impatiently, at least.

"I think I can make that part happen," Cecily said, her voice as smooth as silk.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Gabriel," Cecily said, "Will can live with you as his brother-in-law, you know."

"If you had told me that a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to believe you," Gabriel said. "But we've all changed, Will the most of all, and I think I could be able to stand him as my brother-in-law if it meant having you as my bride."

Cecily gave him a big smile, showing no teeth but equal warmth like that that was flooding through her. "I'd like that, you know, Gabriel. It would make things easier since we'll liable to living in the same place together for the next fifty years."

"If that long. We live and work in a dangerous place and have a dangerous occupation, Cecily. We might not last that long," Gabriel felt the duty to point out.

"You've lasted this long. You'll last for much longer. And so shall I, for I shall not be able to leave you with Will with only Tessa to keep you from tearing each other apart," Cecily said pointedly, like it was an order. "She'd never be able to do it."

That was the thing about Cecily. She commanded attention and people's help. She was shorter and smaller and the youngest of all the Shadowhunters in the Institute, but she was a natural born leader. Gabriel admired that in her, and he had told her before. She had smiled and said a quite simple thank you, like she had known that already and that it was nice of him to say it aloud.

"So," she said, slipping her other hand in his, "you're going to be stuck with me for quite some time, despite anything that Will might have to say about it."

"At a time that Will will allow it?" Gabriel said, sounding amused.

Cecily scoffed. "His opinion doesn't matter very much. As long as it's long enough from now that he won't try to get at you for marrying me when I am so very young, I think he'll just have to live with it."

"Sounds wonderful," Gabriel said, and he was wearing a slight smile. That smile was good to see, seeing as the past couple of days had been straining on everyone.

"Indeed," Cecily said. It was quiet for a moment before she cleared her throat and said loftily, "You know, that leaves plenty of time to practice . . . certain things."

"I was waiting for you to bring that up," Gabriel said, and he leaned toward her and caught her lips in his, making her smile against them, pleased and filled with warmth.

The stars and moon shone down on them.

**Readers, what exactly is Cecily and Gabriel's shipping name? I MUST KNOW. **

**BECAUSE I SHIP THEM HARD. THAT'S WHY. Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	9. Decisions, Decisions

_**Soli Deo gloria  
**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Infernal Devices. In answer to tessacarstairsherondale, Sophie is a Shadowhunter-in-training. :)  
**

It was a very late night that night when Gideon finally wished good night to the last relative, who headed off to bed full of feeling pride, as he had won many an argument against Gideon, who could have easily debated him into speechlessness, but had withheld his tongue in order to keep peace alive. Gideon didn't mind, though, but he felt rather drained of energy as he sighed, settling back against his soft chair near the roaring fire. The clock overhead called out, telling him that it was midnight and that it was advisable to go to sleep soon. But he didn't feel like moving quite yet.

It had been a long day. He hadn't known who several of the relatives had been, seeing as his father used to go visiting people on trips by himself while he stayed with Gabriel and Tatiana at home. But he had talked, because he knew they were there because of him. He wasn't even sure if any of them cared about Sophie, who was warm and witty and smart and kind. It annoyed him greatly, sent a great wave of anger through him, because they hadn't cared. They just wanted to judge and take in the place, watching through their heavily-lidded eyes as they drank their wine and listened to Benedict's oldest son.

It wasn't until he saw her in the shadows did he sit up immediately and say, "Sophie. It's late, why aren't you in bed?"

"I wasn't able to sleep," Sophie said, and she took a seat on one of the dark crimson upholstered couches in front of the fire. The flames played against her face, her long scar showing hard against the shadows and playing of light. "There has been too much going on. I was just in to see Charlotte. She's not feeling well at all, Gideon. I mean, she doesn't let on, but it's quite obvious, and she tries to brush it off like her health isn't important, but it is." She sighed and looked away into the crackling flames, a worried look on her face, one that made Gideon feel pain at seeing her in pain.

"How are - are you feeling all right, Sophie?" Gideon said, sitting up in his seat, leaning forward and looking concerned. She looked paler than usual, the weight of having no sleep laying heavily on her.

Sophie said, "I believe I am fine, though I have something that I have been pondering since this evening." She looked to him and said, "Though, I am not sure how you will take to listening to me."

"Whatever it is, please tell me, Sophie," Gideon said. For he wanted to hear what she had to say, as silly or stupid as she thought it sounded to herself.

Sophie took in a deep sigh and met his eyes. "I know, Gideon, that you have equal claim and more than equal opinion and input into the date of the wedding. You were the one to have chosen it, but now, I feel that, if you wouldn't mind, we could move it ahead, until Charlotte is well enough to attend."

She looked away from him, afraid that she had asked too much. She hadn't seen the fullest extent of how Gideon controlled his temper, and she'd rather not learn it now. Still, the matter had seemed to be pressing her as she sat by Charlotte's bedstead, holding her hand, worrying about her. She couldn't have the happiest day of her life when Charlotte, the dearest person she knew, was laying in bed, feeling horribly sick, yet uncomplaining.

So Sophie was surprised and looked up when she heard Gideon say, "Of course. That sounds like a good plan, Sophie. It wouldn't be the same with the Consul not in attendance." He took a deep breath. "I know that Charlotte means a lot to you, and I want to make you happy. It's your wedding day, and if you want Charlotte there, then it's understandable to wait until she is better for the wedding to commence."

"Really, Gideon? Are you sure?" Sophie said. She knew that this was his day too, an important one, according to his relatives.

He nodded, though, looking placid.

"But—what about your relatives? Do you think it is too much to have them wait until next Saturday, at least?" Sophie said.

"They're getting free room and board, with all the wine they can drink. They have no say in my opinion of what should happen." Gideon got up and took the seat next to Sophie, his curly sandy hair looking shiny in the light of the fire. He looked older than he had earlier; it was no doubt the strain of having all these people about was having a toil on him, but he bore the weight of everything with the ability of someone twice his age.

He took one of Sophie's rough, red hands in his, enclosing it in his large, tan bear-paw hand. "It's our day, Sophie, and we can decide what to do. We want the Consul at the wedding; therefore, she shall. We just have to wait. And everyone else will just have to bear with what our choice is." His voice hardened at the end, like he was also telling himself and was becoming more convinced that his decision was the right one.

Sophie was smiling now, looking pleased. "All right. Then we must tell Charlotte and Henry as soon as possible."

"It's far too late to do that sort of errand, though," Gideon reminded her, glancing at the grandfather clock above the mantel of the fireplace, showing the old hands to be at twelve and one. "I suggest we get more sleep before we do that sort of thing."

"That's probably wise," Sophie said with a sigh. She wanted Charlotte to know as soon as possible, but as usual, Gideon was sensible. Well, not always as usual. Either she was sensible or he was. Never at the same time were they both sensible.

* * *

Their offer, while surprisingly nice and from the heart, was rejected by Charlotte that following early morning.

"But, Charlotte," Sophie could only say, watching in horror as _irtaze_ after _irtaze_ was applied to the fragile skin of her friend's arm. Charlotte's arms, legs, neck, and collarbone were all covered in_ iratzes_, which were fading away at an alarming rate. Time had to pass before Brother Michael could apply another one, and Sophie had told the news to her when he had stepped back to allow her to regain a bit of strength.

"Sophie," Charlotte said, her voice sounding weak, "I will not have the most important day of your life put on hold for me. Guests are already here and there's been too much planning and organizing just to have me throw a wrench in the works."

Henry, who was sitting right beside Charlotte in one of the many chairs in their bedroom, his face full of drawn lines and paleness like that of the moon, tried to say, "Charlotte, Sophie has agreed with this and it might be a good idea—"

"I—won't—have it," Charlotte said, and she bit her tongue when the pain of the searing_ iratzes_ burned at her skin.

Henry sighed unhappily and looked at how Charlotte was holding in the pain, and he looked across the room to the corner where the Silent Brother was standing, his head bowed and his countenance obligingly bent.

"Brother, excuse me, but how are these runes supposed to help Charlotte? They're not doing much, I'm afraid, for she's been here these two or so days and nothing has been able to help her."

Brother Michael was silent for a moment, but then his head tipped up slightly, a tuft of hair rising from the hood. He practically floated over, as silent as a ghost and as graceful as a ballerina. He came to a stop at the left of Charlotte, and one of his pale hands, which was spotted with grey freckles, took up her wrist, which pulsed with a blue vein, and he applied his thick thumb against it.

There was silence for a moment, the Silent Brother living up to his name and Henry and Sophie not daring to breath until the Silent Brother placed her wrist back against the pillow once more.

_I have waited long enough. This is not visible or physical improvement in your state, Consul. An operational surgery in order, I fear._

"A surgery? Now?" Henry said, his eyes popping with a strange mix of fear and determination to put his wife out of her misery.

_Yes. The baby has done nothing to improve its state, and it is doing nothing but putting needless pressure against his mother's bones. There is a chance of a painful ending for either if we do not immediately birth the baby._

"There is no argument that can take a surgery out of the equation, is there?" Henry said, his voice sounding slightly indignant as his left hand squeezed Charlotte's right. She had closed her eyes and evidently had fallen asleep from exhaustion at having the runes applied to her, which were now fading away at a steady pace.

_No, there is not. I need not your permission, Mr. Branwell, to do what is right and to save both mother and child, but I feel like it would mean more to not have you against our cause._

Henry sighed and Sophie looked fearful, like she didn't know what to say to change his mind about anything, for she and Henry were on the same page more often than not when it came to Charlotte. While the surgery sounded dangerous, Charlotte was often stronger than she appeared, and she would pull through. A mundane would have a lesser chance of surviving, but Charlotte was used to have strange things being done to her body that mundanes would have died from.

And both wished desperately that Aunt Callida was here, but she was off getting an earned rest and hot meal and a change of clothes.

Henry finally said, after a long moment, "Call the other Brothers in. I give them my permission."

Brother Michael bowed his head, like he was nodding an acknowledgement of a deal made to Henry, and then glided, the folds of his robes flapping silently around him like they were in a soundless wind, and the door echoed when he closed it back against its hard frame.

Sophie turned quickly to Henry, her eyes big against her pale face and scar. "What should I do?" she immediately volunteered, knowing that Henry needed all the help he could get. "Hot water? Rags? Can I fetch ya a cup of tea?" for she knew that he needed to stay calm, and sometimes (more often than not) Henry would get terribly flustered. Tea was calming.

He shook his head and met her eyes, eyes that understood and were the same as his. "Just get her aunt Callida. And Tessa, and then come back and stay here. I don't think I can stay here alone with just the Silent Brothers working on her."

"Do you think they'll take her to the infirmary?" Sophie said.

"I suppose so," Henry said. "Or maybe not. It'd be horrid to move her around now." His hold on her hand tightened, but only slightly, in the way that was comforting to her even in her sleep.

* * *

Tessa was just finishing _Grievous Intentions_, a book she was finding to have a gruesome, blood-soaked ending, one that made her slam the book against the covers of her bed and look at with distaste, when there was a knock on her door, and barely was she able to ask, "Who is it?" when Sophie came flying in, turning about at the door and slamming it behind her as she gasped and looked to Tessa.

Tessa was on her feet in a second. "Sophie, what is wrong?" Then a horrid thought filled her head. "Oh no. Charlotte?"

Sophie nodded, her head bobbing about, and she said, "You must hurry. Henry wants us there for the surgery. This means we're going to met Baby Branwell."

Tessa instantly picked up her skirts and hurried to the door as Sophie threw it open and hurried out. "Now? Sophie, explain! What have the Silent Brothers said? What is happening?" Tessa could feel her hair flying behind her as the pins fell out onto the carpet running through the hall, her skirts shaking about her as she ran past Sophie, who had stopped at Cecily's room's doorway. Tessa stopped at the corner, nearly running into a wall, and turned about to hear Sophie say, "Cecily, tell the boys what is happening. Send them to the library, ready to summon if something should happen."

"'Happen'?" Cecily said, standing up immediately as Tessa came running about to Sophie, her face bright from running. Cecily's countenance looked perturbed as she cocked her head, her hair tossed over one side of her head. "What exactly is happening?"

"Charlotte is going into surgery. Baby Branwell should be here soon enough," Tessa said, gasping for breath.

Cecily glanced back into her room, seeing that the grandfather clock said that it was barely seven in the morning. She gulped and looked nervously back at Sophie and Tessa, who were both looking far older and more reserved about this than she was.

This was going to be a long day.

"What do you want me to do, exactly?"

* * *

Will had never looked so pale.

He usually had a light pallor, that was true, and when he blushed, the pink burned bright against his skin. But now it looked alarming, like Jem's skin used to look, and he tried to bring the color back as he paced back and forth along the carpet of the parlor, which had a steady fire going.

Gideon and Gabriel were settled in sofa chairs, looking like they had just been dumped there by some large hand. Both of their hair was ruffled, their clothes were hastily put on, and their expressions yawning.

Cecily was standing at the door, pacing back and forth as well, looking the most awake of the entire lot. It was just the four of them, the guest relatives still in their rooms, breakfast moved to eight, and the four were waiting for Tessa or Sophie to come running in with some news. But there had been none, and so the four were left to simmer and wonder in the parlor.

Cecily sighed and quickly strode toward the windows, which she hastily started to unhook.

"Will," she said over her shoulder, "stop pacing. You'll burn a hole in the carpet. Charlotte will have your head."

"You were just doing the same, little sister," Will said, and he ignored her words and only increased his speed. His footsteps thumped against the floor, probably being the only thing that kept the Lightwood brothers awake. They had only been in their rooms getting ready for the day when Cecily had knocked on the door and called for them to come to the parlor for urgent news. They had come along; Gabriel worried over Cecily, Gideon over Sophie, and Will came along because Cecily looked far too frantic than he liked her to be. And so she had explained to them the circumstances and they had fallen into positions like they had planned it.

The curtains to the windows were pushed back. Sunlight flooded through into the room, casting rectangles of buttery yellow across the red carpet, filling the air with the lightness of seeing the floating dust. Cecily moved forward and began wrestling them open until cool London air started to float in, filling the hot room with a cold chill.

She stepped back and breathed in the now familiar smell. "Will?" she said over her shoulder, "what time is it?"

"Eight," he said, and then the sound of his pace quickened, seeing as he had stopped just briefly to see clearly the clock over the mantel chiming the hours.

Cecily frowned.

It had only been an hour. No news. No progress they had heard of. No Tessa or Sophie. No Baby Branwell.

This was going to be a while.

**BABY BRANWELL. *Runs around frantically* Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	10. Magnus Bane, It's Been a While

**_Soli Deo gloria_  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Infernal Devices. Hello, my darlings! Look, BABY BRANWELL.**

It had not been a comfortable last few hours for Charlotte. There had been unbelievable pain, blood, hot water, and sweat. Sophie's and Tessa's voices trying to soothe her had blended together until they were twins saying the same thing in the same voice. Henry's hand had been twisted and pulled and pushed and crushed in her surprisingly strong grip, and she had screamed, screamed harder than she thought she ever would scream. Her voice had shouted and ripped at her throat, and having had to push, squeezing hands and hearing voices blended in her head had made her dizzy and want to faint, but now, seeing the tender little red face in her arms, a small little bundle of blankets and warmth and flesh and her and Henry, she hoped to stay awake as long as she could.

Charlotte had been a mother for almost six years. Will had been her boy, her little friend, and there had been Jessamine and Jem, but never had the deep love for such a tiny little thing ever possess her until now, and she wasn't quite sure from where it had come from, but it was undeniably there from the second she heard her boy cry out his annoyance at the bright light.

Her arm, covered with faint scars from the _iratzes_ and endurance runes she had somehow had the strength to bear, gently extended, and her thin fingers reached out and stroked the face of her little Charles, who had fiery red hair that was still darker than his father's, seeing as he had inherited something from his mother.

Henry was at her arm, leaning over her, his face full of wonder and amazement and paternal pride at seeing his little boy for the first time.

"He's wonderful," Henry breathed, sounding entirely surprised that the sex of their baby was the one they thought they would get. His name seemed to immediately fit the little lad. Little Charles Buford Branwell.

"Isn't he?" Charlotte said, and she stretched out her arms after dipping her face close to touch Charles's nose in a sign of affection, and placed the little bundle into Henry's arms.

He was slightly shocked only for a moment, for a wave of knowledge of what to do hit him from he didn't know where, and he instantly held his son in his arms, tucking the blanket around his face like a frame around a picture.

"He has freckles. Or, he will. I just know it," Henry said, looking back to Charlotte, who was laying back against the blankets and pillows of the bed.

Aunt Callida, who was busy mixing cups of tea, tsked, though a smile was on her face, and she said, "Come now, Charlotte, and let Lucy change the sheets. You need a clean bed."

"Preferably one that is not covered in my perspiration. Indeed, Aunt Callida," Charlotte said, taking in a deep breath as Tessa and Sophie came around to help her up. The Silent Brothers were set in a corner of the room, talking to themselves, as Lucy came diving in and stripped and re-established a set of sheets on the bed. Charlotte was carefully put back in her spot, for which she was grateful, and Charles was handed back to her.

Tessa and Sophie, both red-faced with dark hair flying everywhere, sticking to random places around their faces with sweat and steam from the hot water and the stress of the situation, stood back and took in the sight. Aunt Callida was handing Henry a cup of tea. Charlotte was looking to her aunt, looking like she was thanking her for coming despite Henry's miscommunication. And all three of them were looking constantly from the person they were talking to to look at the baby, who was yawning and looking like he was tired.

Tessa had never seen a baby like this. There had been the loud ones in New York, the screaming ones she'd hear as she'd walked through the alleys in the apartment districts. They had made her fearful of babies, because she thought they never stopped screaming, but now looking back on it, she concluded that their mothers had been too busy doing the laundry that hung above her head and dripped water on her. For she was sure babies only needed their mothers, for Charles looked almost peaceful staring at his mother's animated face.

Sophie looked like a proud sister, like she was the aunt of young Charles. She had been frantic those nearly seven hours of labor and screaming and waiting, but now she could laugh at any moment, she was so happy for Henry and Charlotte. She looked to Tessa, who was looking on with a thoughtful expression on her face, and she said, "Isn't it wonderful?"

Tessa nodded, taking in the scene before her, and there was a pang in her, a lonely note of hollowness, that she had never had such a comforting family like this. But she had what she had in the Institute, and she straightened and realized her position as a woman in the life of young Charles, and she decided that she would give him the love and affection that her aunt Harriet had shown her.

"It's beautiful," Tessa said. And she smiled.

* * *

Cecily finally couldn't take it anymore. It had been several hours, and the four of them had eaten food that had tasted like sawdust for lunch. Lucy had locked the doors for them so no relatives could come in, and so they had listened anxiously for a knock on the door, the owner of it being either one of the servants or Sophie or Tessa.

She was going to them. It was taking entirely too long for them to come to them, so there was no more choice in the matter. She wrestled at the doorknob and opened the door with a bang, alerting the three boys to the fact that she was leaving.

"Where are you going?" Gabriel said loudly.

Cecily turned and gave him a look. "I'd think it's obvious, Gabriel," and she turned and slammed the door behind her, and she stalked down the carpet, pounding past several people who were bored and wandering the halls and now asking her if she knew where the library or sitting room was. She ignored all of them, though, not eager to have to play hostess when there was a baby about to be born that she had no current news of. She wondered if any of the servants or Sophie or Tessa had told any of the Lightwood relatives that the Consul was having her baby. She wasn't sure, and she now cringed at thinking that, for she would have to help write letters in response to other Shadowhunters' congratulations to Charlotte on the newest baby in the Clave.

She came to Charlotte's room, where she was sure she was, and knocked for once, not sure in what state she would find the Consul to be.

There was an answer. Tessa came to the door, looking like she had run a good three miles since Cecily had seen her last.

"Cecily," Tessa said breathlessly.

"Any news I can report back?" Cecily said. "Is Charlotte doing well? Is Henry still breathing? Is the baby here or 'just another hour'?"

Tessa turned back into the bedroom and said, "Charlotte, would you mind if Cecily came in to see the baby?"

Cecily's energy level spiked and she found herself buzzing with an excitement akin to having too much sugar or having much too fun working in the training room when Tessa turned and said, "Come inside and meet him. Don't touch him, though. You're not very clean."

Cecily decided not to take that as an insult as she came inside, Tessa closing the large doors behind her. And Cecily stood there for a moment, utterly and calmly dumbfounded, taking in the scene of Charlotte looking rosy and holding a little baby in her arms. She recovered quickly and stepped forward, taking to the left of Charlotte, and after a moment of where she couldn't speak, she was so speechless, she swallowed and managed to find her voice to say in a congratulatory tone, "Well. He's handsome, Charlotte. You must be very proud, Henry."

"Yes. Of both of them," Henry said, practically beaming, like a sunbeam had taken root in him and was shining through his skin so that he was glowing with happiness.

Cecily drew a little nearer, her hands tracing the thick blanket, as Charlotte shifted Charles to her left arm and said, "Isn't he darling?"

"That's Henry's nose," Cecily said, surprised. The baby looked like Henry, through and through, with just Charlotte's mouth and perceptive eyes. He was a lovely combination of the both of them, and he truly looked like their child.

"Do you think his looks shall change as he grows older?" Tessa wondered.

Cecily said, "I hope not, for who wouldn't want to have to look like the childish combination of Charlotte and Henry?"

And that answered her question well enough.

Charlotte shifted Charles back in the folds of the bed's blankets and her arms, and Cecily said what she had been thinking since the moment she saw the baby. "When shall the boys be in to see you?" She said this with her hands clasped behind her back and a slight jump in her step, a combination of her trying to be polite and of her being anxious.

Charlotte looked thoughtfully from Charles to Henry and said, turning back to Cecily, "Bring them in tonight. After supper. I shall take rest in my seat by the fire and they can admire him there."

Cecily nodded, bobbed a curtsy, wished the two congratulations and the bestest wishes once more, and then skedaddled out the door, down the halls, and slammed into the doors leading to the sitting room. She scowled when she felt that they had locked them again, and she banged at them with a vigor, saying loudly, "Will, it is Cecy; let me in."

There was the sound of immediate running to the door and then the footsteps stopped and Will's voice penetrated through the wood: "And what have you to say for yourself, Cecily?"

"Will, let me in." Cecily did not sound amused.

"Only if you have news," Will replied.

"Such as that he has as orange and dark hair as his father, maybe a bit darker?" Cecily said, and her nose was nearly hit as Will hastily through the door open, looking none too apologetic as he said, "So, Buford is here?"

"Better call him Charles if you don't want Charlotte to have your head, you know," Cecily said. "I read in a book once, back at Mortmain's house, that a mother is always terribly protective of her young."

"I highly doubt that," Will said. His voice sounded the same as usual, though Cecily was sure she caught something else attached to it.

"Don't doubt Charlotte," Cecily said. She raised an eyebrow. "Can I come in?"

"I suppose that news is sustenance enough," Will allowed, and he opened the door wider and she stepped in, immediately making Gideon and Gabriel stand up. While Gideon looked all the ready for the news she had come with, Gabriel looked just glad to see her.

"And?" was all that Gabriel could find to say that sounded appropriate. After all, young men just did not ask how the Consul was doing when she was in the process of giving birth.

"It's the long expected boy they wanted. Little Charles Buford Branwell. He's got a mop of dark orange hair and looks like Henry and Charlotte. You can see him tonight at the fire in Charlotte's room. She is expecting you all," Cecily said.

Gideon looked relieved. "Wonderful."

Cecily nodded and then, frowning, said, "Which one of us is going to tell the entirety of this Institute what happened to Charlotte and where she has been this entire time?"

"And the result of her seclusion. I say we take to being the four winds. I'll take the west," Will said.

Cecily sighed and agreed, and they took flight through the Institute, Gabriel taking the north and Gideon to the east and she herself took the south. And within the next ten minutes, everyone was up and startled that all of this had happened that day, and Cecily, when she was done, ran to the Branwells' bedroom to tell Tessa to lock the doors to keep the crowds away.

* * *

After supper, only Cecily, Will, Gabriel, and Gideon were allowed into the Branwells' bedroom to see the baby. He was set in his mother's loving arms, and Charlotte was seated next to the fire. Henry sat a bit away from the respective semi-circle around the two most important people of his life, and just watched with a fond sort of face at them.

The boys did not touch the baby except for his hair, for they were declared by Cecily to be ". . . too dirty to touch him. Or else you'll spread some disease to him."

"Oh, it's not as if you girls are all sterile," Will had said, squashing his hands into his pockets.

"We have a sense of hygiene, unlike a someone who keeps blood-covered handkerchiefs in his pockets," Cecily said.

Will huffed but then grew quiet as Charles was handed carefully over to Tessa, and he felt his breath catch in his throat and his heart pounded and was steady in his ears as she shifted him in her arms and then looked forward at him, a warm smile on her face, her eyes taking in the new life, her mouth whispering sweet nothings to the child, and Will had a sudden vision of Tessa holding a slight baby with wispy black hair and grey eyes, and she was smiling with an even deeper warmth at the life in her arms, like she was part of a creator of it, like she had bore the baby.

And Will smiled to himself, because he just knew in his heart that Tessa would be a wonderful mother.

It was nearly midnight when he stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked through the dark, dim, quiet halls of the Institute to the front door, which he opened and which echoed, sending an ominous air into the Institute. But, of course, if anything, Will was used to ominous, and he paid it no mind as he stepped onto the stone steps and looked around in the dark. The moon was overhead, and so he could hear the whistles and howls of some werewolves as they went on their savage hunts. He supposed that was one of the main reasons the Institute had a sprawling gate tight around the courtyard.

He went down the steps, two at a time, and caught his breath in the air, noticing how it came out like a pocket of steam. Even with it being March, spring had yet to come, and Will wished it would. There was nothing more he liked than seeing green nature and flowers, like in Wales, but those were practically foreign to grey, cool London.

He came to the last step and looked to his left, turning and straightening his overcoat as he looked into the shrubs and said, "Jessamine."

He saw her then, as if she had just appeared out of the mist, her body and dress flowing with an elegant grace as she straightened and eyed him for a moment, her face almost appraising looking.

"I haven't talked to you in quite a while," she said, her voice sounding almost cold, but definitely annoyed. She folded her arms over her bloodstained chest. "It's been far too long, William."

"My, are we getting huffy," Will said coolly, looking not slightly bothered at her tone.

"I should have you know that I had Jem and Tessa to talk to, but it's been months since you've seen me and they found me on their own. Apparently you aren't a gossip, Will Herondale," Jessamine said. "You might have thought of my need for companionship."

"And you could have given them a call when they've been passing in and out of the Institute for the past three months," Will pointed out.

Jessamine frowned, scowling. "Cat-calling isn't at all ladylike, Will."

Will rolled his eyes. "Of course, Your Highness. I should have known that I was your correspondence between you and the rest of the physical world. I'm sorry for not having been communicating correctly for your social needs."

Jessamine sighed and threw him such a look that if it had been anyone besides Jessamine, Will might have been a little ashamed, but she looked so much like a bedraggled porcelain doll that it was a strange sight to see, and so Will felt no shame a'tall.

"When I had only you to talk to, I suppose you could think that I would need someone else to converse with. You're horribly rude, Will," Jessamine said, shaking her head and looking just like the old Jessie.

Will bowed, his coattails sticking out behind him, his hand to his chest in the gesture. "And that is only one of my many talents. Might be the one I'm the most proud of," Will said, straightening back up.

"You have to have something as a talent, I suppose," Jessamine said, her lips pursed together. She sighed and looked like she might want to send him away. "Will, was there a particular reason for you to come to see me, or just the mere thought of teasing me sent you out here?"

"I have motive behind my actions," Will said.

"As always," Jessamine said tartly.

"Charlotte has had her baby, if you wanted to know," Will said, his voice a tad more serious. Jessamine looked taken back; just the reaction he had been looking for. "Little Charles Buford Branwell."

"Buford? Good heavens," Jessamine said, astonished. "That's even worse than Zechariah."

"Yes, the nerve of them, I know. But it was Henry's father's name, I understand, and so he was vehement at having it. Charlotte settled it as the middle name, seeing as even she is not cruel enough to name the child Buford. And that is all that has happened in the Institute since you've seen Jem and Tessa," Will said. He gave her a bright smile. "Anything else, Princess Jessie?"

Jessamine looked properly stunned for once, to Will's satisfaction, but she cleared her throat and said delicately, "No, I believe there is nothing else, Will. But, in a few days or so, when Charlotte is feeling better, please, tell her about me. I'd like to talk to her. I suffer for words here at my steps."

"Of course," Will said, "and I'll tell you her reaction and everything?"

"Reaction?" someone said from the gates to the Institute, making Will and Jessamine whirl around at the voice, which sounded oddly familiar.

"Who is that?" said Jessamine, who could not recognize the voice, but the smirk on Will's face told her that he knew the voice well.

"Magnus," Will said, and he headed down the walk to the fine gate and looked through to see such a sight that he was actually surprised. Magnus was dressed like someone from the Middle East, dressed in a turban, his black hair covered, with long, flowy pants and a tan shirt, bags hanging off his arms and a grey cat slinked around his shoulders like a scarf.

"The prodigal son has returned," Will said.

"Looking well, Herondale," Magnus said, his voice sounding tired yet cheerful.

"And why have we to receive the honor of having the infamous Magnus Bane coming along to our humble Institute?" Will wondered, clearing sounding amused, but also curious as to why Magnus was back if he was heading to New York yet looked like he was straight from India, dark skin and all.

"You have a formula in there, Will," Magnus said. "Plenty of people, a wedding, lovely women. I hear and decided to come along. For a little wine and a little party, for who can't pass that up?"

Will shrugged. "A point made, Magnus," and he opened the gate and allowed the spry warlock through into the yard.

"And where are we receiving you from? I thought you planned for New York," Will said as Church meowed and slinked down Magnus like a silvery moving clothing accessory, and the cat stood and stared at the Institute for a moment before remembering his domain, and he meowed once more and led his servants down the rocky path to the door, at which he sat at and looked at Will indignantly to open.

But the Shadowhunter was much slower, walking at an amiable pace with the warlock, who was saying, "Circumstances and lack of funds hasn't gotten me a ticket across as of yet. A trip with small boat and wagons brought me to India, where they all tried to kill me and serve me with a delicious array of curries and pots of rice," Magnus said. "But, of course, dealing with mere faeries, they were easy to escape, and I decided to bunk around until my services have paid for my ticket."

"How noble," Will said, "buying a ticket instead of sneaking aboard a boat."

"I have morals, Shadowhunter," Magnus said; that statement made Will snort in doubt, and Magnus chose to ignore him when he noticed the being Will had been talking to when he had come calling. He stopped and smiled a charming smile, stepping over to Jessamine and saying, "I don't believe we have ever had the pleasure of meeting."

"As if meeting you is a pleasure," Will said. Jessamine looked a little taken back, but only a bit, for she still had her nose up high, and since she was taller than both men, she was looking down at them, quite literally. He waved his hand to Magnus and said, "Jessamine, this is the insufferable Magnus Bane, a warlock with whom I have acquaintance. Magnus, this is Jessamine Gray. She was a Shadowhunter here until Mortmain's automatons killed her, on this very step.

"How despicable," Magnus said quietly. He reached and caught Jessamine's gray, faded hand, and he kissed the top, though it was only air he kissed.

He let go and gave her a look that would have made many a girl wave a handkerchief at her face and turn to whisper in delighted tones at how charming he was to her girlfriends, but Jessamine only stared at him coldly.

"A warlock," she said. She cleared her throat, looking away from Magnus for a moment before turning back to him and saying, "I was married, Mr. Bane, when I died, to Nathaniel Gray."

"Oh, yes. The traitor, as I've heard," Magnus said.

Jessamine would have turned red if she were alive. "Don't say it like that, warlock!"

"Then do well not to insult me, and I shall do the same to you," Magnus said coolly, and he bowed and turning to Will, said, "And what has happened at the Institute since I've last been here?"

Jessamine gasped dramatically and Will said to Magnus, "You just earned a bit more respect from me, Mr. Bane."

"Oh, thank you, Herondale. You know how much I value a Shadowhunter's opinion," Magnus said, and Will gave him a brash smile and turned and went up the steps and opened the door, allowing Church to slip back in and start meowing for Master Jem.

* * *

Will found Magnus a nice guest room that was empty. It was not hard to find one, since the majority of the rooms in the Institute were guest bedrooms; it was just a matter of walking a long way down the halls to get to one, considering all the nearest ones were being occupied by sleeping Lightwood relatives and guests.

Will explained the wedding and the demon hunt tomorrow and the new little Branwell baby as he opened the door and waved a hand for Magnus to enter. The warlock turned in the doorway and gave Will a nod good night, and that was also meant as a thank you, but warlocks didn't say thank you to Shadowhunters, which Will understood, and so he just nodded back and closed the door behind him, and he noticed that Church was at his feet and meowing demandingly for his Master Jem.

Will frowned. "He isn't here, cat." But when he walked away, the cat followed him, which was annoying, seeing as Will didn't want to be its replacement master. He was too far away from Magnus's room when he finally had enough and grabbed the cat and deposited him in Gabriel's room, hoping that he jumped onto the bed and woke Gabriel up.

**MAGNUS BANE AND BABY BRANWELL, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.**

**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)**


	11. It's Too Early For This Sort of Thing

**_Soli Deo gloria_  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the magnificent Infernal Devices. Hey, guys, I got the Maze Runner today, which means: Read book. Read book series. Fall in love with series. EPIC FANFICTION TIME. :)**

Magnus hadn't slept so well in a long time. The bed was made, the windows were closed, and the walls didn't have large holes in them with too many mice running about for Church to eat. So, it was understandable that when there was a loud knock on the door that woke him up, he was greatly annoyed.

"Who dares annoy me with their presence this early in the morning?" Magnus groaned, his eyes still closed, his body caught in a torrent of sheets. "If it's the maid, I can make my own fire."

"I've never been a maid. Never really fancied me," Will said, coming through into the room like he owned the place. He stood at the foot of the bed, his body covered in webs of black leather, his gear criss-crossing all over him, a belt at his waist and his feet covered in thick, long boots. His white skin was covered in black, bold runes, and his hair was ruffled, like he had not combed it when he had woken up, making Magnus open his eyes and keep them open as he said, rubbing a hand over his face, "What do you want, Shadowhunter?"

"I have decided to extend an invitation to you to come to the demon den with us," Will said, his voice too loud and calm and pleasant for this early in the morning.

"Pardon?" Magnus said, almost disgustedly. "I am not one to kill demons. That is your job, your responsibility. Your special gift that was bestowed to you hundreds of years ago, etcetera."

"It's grand to watch. I know how you like a show," Will said. "And you have to come and work the Portal. We're taking it to the workhouse, and Henry's not coming and you're the only one to get it to open on the other side."

"Not this early," and Magnus flopped onto his stomach and buried his head in the pillow he was snuggling against.

"What a disappointing houseguest. You barely participate in anything. No wonder Woolsey got tired of you," Will said, shrugging, and he was out the door by the time Magnus brought his head back up to snap an insult in the direction of the Shadowhunter, but when he was only met with a slowly closing door, he sighed and fell back into bed with a terrifically soft thud.

Will came along to the sitting room, where the rest of the party that was going was. There was Gideon and Gabriel, Great Uncle Wallace and First Cousin Alexander, the Inquisitor, Pangborn, a few Blackthorns, several Lightwoods, Ragnor Fell, Whitelaw, Ms. Highsmith, Aunt Callida, who deemed that Henry was fine with Charlotte, and Cecily, who was standing tall with her hands on her hips, which had clasps of weapons attached to her belt around them, and said upon walking up to Will as the other Shadowhunters milled about, preparing, "What did Magnus say?"

Will looked at her for a moment, trying not to show her that he was startled. He did not ask her how she knew that Magnus had come in last night (she had bags under her eyes. She had probably had been in the training room with Gabriel, making Will remember to remember to strangle him sometime after this) or he had been to see him, so he just said, "And why are you in gear? You aren't thinking of going with us, are you?" Typical Herondale fashion, answering a question with a question.

"Yes, I am," Cecily said, sounding, as Will, too cheerful for this early in the morning. "Sophie has decided not to go, seeing as she doesn't want her first big demon hunt to be this big with so many people and so near to her wedding, so I decided that there was a lack of Shadowhunters, female Shadowhunters in general—"

"There's six with us," Will said. "That's a lot, I thought."

"That six would include Tessa," Cecily said, nodding her fine head and pointing to Tessa, who was dressed in plain clothes but was just standing in the background and taking in the large number of Shadowhunters, her inquisitive eyes taking everyone in.

"And what about Tessa?" Will said lightly.

"And what about Tessa?" Cecily said indignantly, throwing an eye at Tessa, who in turn looked at Will with wondering eyes upon seeing the two talking about her.

Will shrugged, but looked thoughtful as he looked at Tessa. "Tessa can do whatever she likes."

"And I can't?" Cecily exclaimed.

Will turned back to Cecily with a firm look. "Tessa doesn't go on demon hunts. You know that. There's probably another female we're expecting — ah," and he pointed to the door, through which came, to his surprise but relief, Tatiana Blackthorn. Her hair, the color of orangish sand, was tied back, and her green eyes were soft yet stern as she looked around the room. She caught sight of her two brothers, who were applying runes on each other in turn, and went toward them, capturing their surprised looks in a second.

"There's a sixth," Will said triumphantly.

Cecily looked disgusted. "Tatiana Blackthorn? That coward? She insulted Charlotte and testified against her to Consul Wayland. She ran away while I was the one to take care of her worm of a father. How come she gets to go and I don't?"

"Ah ah ah, Cecily," Will said, clicking his tongue, "it wouldn't do for there to be a rift in the family. If I were you, I'd rather not complain about my boy's sister. It causes strain and unneeded but frequent glares across the dining room table, which causes many to lose their appetites."

Cecily flushed a dark, furious red, but Will turned away from her before she could add anymore to her case and said, not even having to yell to garner the gathered Shadowhunters' attention, "Well, I'd say everyone is here." His eyes landed on Tatiana, who had her arms folded over her chest and was standing between her two brothers, who towered over her and were throwing her the strangest looks. "Henry Branwell has a Portal in his crypt, a rune-magic door that can lead to anywhere in the world. I'll be leading, seeing as I know where we should go, and so we don't end up someplace like America."

"Excuse you, young man," a woman with a New York accent said, probably a Lightwood. Tessa smiled behind her hand as Will sighed and said, "It's not that I have anything against America, it's just that I'd rather not end up there and have to take a boat back here. Henry should be waiting for us in his crypt, and he'll set it up and we'll go to the workhouse. Our footman Cyril and several other Shadowhunters will come along with carriages to pick us up." That was the original plan, of course, if Magnus didn't want to, which would now be implemented. Will gave a dramatic bow and said, "Everyone to the ground floor."

Everyone started shifting over to the door leading to the hall, and Will felt someone come up to him; he turned to see Tessa, who said wonderingly, "And what did you mean by saying I can do whatever I like? Does this mean that I can come along?"

Will looked at her for a moment, taking her in. She had trained for weeks under the direction of Gideon and Gabriel, mastering how to throw a dagger and use a sword, but never a seraph blade. Never a seraph blade. Will was sure some part of her would burn if she touched a lighted one. It would be too much for him if she were to suddenly get accidentally cut by one of the seraph blades. But also, her Changing could be helpful. But Will knew better than to exploit her like that. She had once told him the feeling of Changing one rainy day in the library. The descriptions, the shivers and shudders she let off, had stirred him into a shivery alarm, and he had held her and now he knew that he couldn't make her do that.

"No. You can't come along, Tess," Will said. "Too much of a risk, with you being part demon, to be surrounded by demon killing weapons." When they — Tessa had defeated Mortmain, she had been looking for Will, and there hadn't been many weapons for them then. This was far too dangerous, and that was just the fact of the matter. Will looked at Tessa, sure she was going to blow up at him, which he was so fond of, but she instead went on the tips of her toes and gently pressed a kiss against his forehead, like her own special goodbye to him.

She leaned back and her hands went to the ties of his gear around his white shirt, and she started to fix the collar as she reprimanded him to "get home by lunch."

"Goodness knows Lucy is going to have a good time fetching each and every dirty Shadowhunter hot water for their bath," Tessa said, patting him around the collar, leaving her fingertips pressed gently just against his white neck. "Maybe I should help her."

Will frowned. "Haven't those servants Charlotte secured come yet?"

Tessa shook her head, her body getting bumped about as Shadowhunters headed to the door to the crypt. "Not until this afternoon, which before I want you to come." She kissed him on the lips very uncarefully then, catching him in an impossibly surprised moment, and she let off and whispered, "Come back, Will," and she pressed her hand against his heart and then headed out of the room to God-knew-where, leaving Will to stare after her like she was an enchanting, distrustful faerie who had entranced him in something.

He finally went after the other Shadowhunters, though, realizing that he would get left behind if he didn't, and he ran down the halls and the stairs two at a time, surpassing many, who, while in ready to be in battle mode, were still talking with many of the relatives, and he was able to bypass them and narrowly beat Gideon and Gabriel to the Portal, the two brothers having a great argument (on the same side, for once) with their sister, who was a few good months pregnant with the child of her late husband, who had been eaten by her father, and Will thought himself glad to not be a part of their family; at least, not just yet.

He came up to Henry, who was mulling something over in his mind as his elbow stuck up from his wheelchair armrest, his hand holding up his head. He tilted his head toward Will as the boy came bounding up to him, saying, "Ready to open the Portal, Henry?"

Henry absentmindedly nodded his head, and looked to the crowd of oncoming Shadowhunters coming toward his invention. He straightened and moved his seat next to the rune-covered Portal, which was swirly and dark and it was like looking into the sky at the darkest part of the night, where there's barely any stars and there's an infinite amount of places they could end up.

"Good morning," Henry said to the Shadowhunters. He cleared his throat, not sure what to say. This was always Charlotte's forte. She was the one who talked aloud to the vast majority, not he, but he gulped back whatever oncoming surge of blush was coming to appear on his face, and he said, gesturing to his invention, "This is—is a something called a Portal. I-I have invented it" — he dared not mention that a warlock, one with magic, had helped him. It was not the time and he could not handle such a crowd if they were angry — "and it actually will work. I swear. It's worked before. It's helped get us to Wales to defeat Mortmain. If it hadn't worked, there would have been trouble—"

"Too true, Henry," Will said, coming up to take his place, having enjoyed the view of watching Henry nearly fumble over his own words quite thoroughly, and he patted the man on the shoulder, relieving him of his position. "Honestly, fellow Shadowhunters, if this man had not worked his wonderful magic, Tessa Gray would be dead; Mortmain would be ruling supreme because there was far too many of his automatons for all the Shadowhunters in the entire world; there would be a lot of dead mundanes, not making particularly any of you look good; and there would have been chaos and ruin and we'd have to wear the color white instead of black, and everyone knows Shadowhunters look better in black."

Will gave them a curt nod and said, "Watch and follow, folks. And trust me. I survived, and if I can survive, you can bet your best handkerchief you will," and he turned before the great and swirling Portal and imagined, imagined the great greyness of the workhouse, the salty smell of the river Thames that had run by it, the feel of the cobblestones under his feet, the great doors with the terrible aroma of demonic activity seeping through the doors, and he opened his eyes when he heard several gasps, and there before him was the lot of grey workhouses, the one he wanted just a little to his left, and he smiled broadly, feeling particularly pleased with himself, and he turned and bowed to the crowd, and then took a step back and disappeared into the Portal as if it were some strange glass.

There was several shocked gasps when it appeared in the glass Will turning around and, after nodding at seeing there was no demons around to catch him off guard, he turned back to where he knew the Portal to be and swept his hand toward the workhouse, inviting the guests to jump right in.

Gabriel stepped forward first and stepped in. And then it was Tatiana Blackthorn, much to Gideon's reluctance, to go through next, and then Gideon followed her, and then Aunt Callida went swiftly through, and with such an older, respected Shadowhunter going through, the rest of the assembled Shadowhunters hesitantly went through, looking around in astonishment when they came out into the wilds of London, wind blowing through their hair, the sounds of machines working away in the workhouses around them.

Will smiled broadly and said, turning to the abandoned workhouse, which looked so quiet and boarded up from the outside, "Let's go kill us a few demons," and his seraph blade lit up in his hand, his long fingers coiled around it, and the Lightwoods came to his sides, his usual hunting partners now, and the entire procession, covered in a light sprinkling of glamour, went through the street and surrounded the workhouse.

Will was at the front, and Gabriel snuck in and nodded when there was verification of no guards.

"There's a whole lot of demons on the floor," he said as Will passed him, nodding, satisfied.

"Hopefully the majority lot of them. Or all," said Will, who felt like wiping out an entire pack of collected demons in one fell swoop. It would be better than to go continually to the workhouse to see if any more had returned to the place.

Blue lights shone throughout the crowd. Seraph blades, lit up at the mere prospect of the slaughtering of demons. The runes laced against skin seemed to stand bolder against their receivers as Will moved closer, his whole countenance screaming with him being the leader, and he whispered, only so that Gideon and Gabriel, who were very near to him, glancing between him and their deathly determined sister, "Let the damned fall," and in burst the Shadowhunters, knowing that sneaking up on these foul creatures with the number they had would fall apart as a plan in their fingertips upon being executed, and so the plan to move in and dominant had won out as the better choice, and dominant they sounded, their feet knocking against the creaky floorboards, the shouts and yells that ripped out of their throats filling the room as they flew to the nearest hellish creature.

But the demons were not surprised.

They had all been sitting around in their benches, slithering body parts creeping along in slime as they watched their head leader, who looked positively straight from Satan, talk and lick his eyes at particularly delicious parts. But now they turned and went rabid, looking deathly with their teeth, filed and long and tinted with green, slimey poison, the horrors of their bodies something that would make mundies faint dead away from shock and horror and fright, but the Shadowhunters had a determined streak in them, and they rushed at the demons with nary a thought to be afraid. They had done this craft for too long to freeze up and suddenly realize that the disgusting creatures they were attacking were to be feared. No, they realized them to be enemies of the Angel, and of heaven, and so destroyed they must be.

The room was so suddenly a battlefield that it was hard to decide the moment the true bloodshed began. Will was being pushed backwards, his feet dancing about in a puddle of slippery black ichor and blood, which he tried to stay out of as he slashed his blade against a creature that had seven legs, all resembling hands, with black fingernails. The beast blew a raspberry and shouted, its hands draw out, and Will ducked and cut them off, ducking away as the beast screeched and turned to him, but the blade had wounded it, and it let out a scream that echoed in Will's ears as its body parts started to fold away, and it became dust in a matter of seconds.

Will was covered with green spit, with ichor on his blade and leg, which he tried to rub off onto a newel post as soon as he could, not wanting it to burn through to his skin, and blood, where a cut from a fallen box had struck him on the forehead. He was breathing heavily, but not panting violently. He turned and saw Gabriel and Gideon on the stage the head demon had been standing on, dueling and ducking and sliding away from six demons, all crawling atop each other and leaning forward, shooting their forked tongues at the brothers.

Will sighed and quickly wound his way through, cutting away at a demon to his left as he turned to save Aunt Callida, who had been being pushed into a corner. He turned and leapt onto the stage, shaking the floorboards under his feet with his weight, and his blade glowed in his hand as he gritted his teeth and said, "Need a bit of help, Gabby?"

"Will, honestly?" Gabriel scowled as the three hunting partners moved forward in one fluid motion, their arms drawing down and slicing limbs off demons before they turned to the ones crawling over the ones they had cut, who were now screaming and shriveling away into themselves, into oblivion.

"Oh, you don't want my help, I see how it is," Will said, grunting as he turned, and a great slithering dragon of a demon came up to him, scales across its back, several legs sticking out from the bottom of it, its eyes pure dark red and thumping like hearts. He sliced away and turned just in time to see Gideon cutting one down like a tree, and then came a sleek, great demon that was zigzagging toward them, teeth yellowed and black at the roots, its skin shriveled and grey like that of a bark of a tree, and it was quite huge, and the three Shadowhunters turned fully to see it, all in battle stance, just as it launched at them.

**BATTLE BATTLE BATTLE. Thanks for reading! _Please review! _**


	12. LOOK AT ALL THE TALKING

_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Infernal Devices, however heart-wrenching and sob-inducing they are. :)**

Sophie was standing quietly at Charlotte's side, at her beck and call, which Charlotte called quite unnecessary. But, after several words from Sophie about needing to help her when Aunt Callida was gone and Brother Michael was no good, she just laid back against her cool sheet, her face rosy and pink, and held little Charles in her small maternal arms as Sophie fetched her tea and a cool cloth and papers and read aloud to her from a book she had hastily snatched from Tessa's room. The room's occupant was out in the library, probably trying to escape from the guests of the Lightwoods, who, as Shadowhunters, were a proud group of folks, and were in their rooms with their discussions and political papers and steles, which they used in carving words into wood in boredom. Sophie could only hope that the lot of them were ready at a moment's notice to defend the great Institute, for with the Lightwood brothers and Will gone, she felt hesitantly undefended, despite the fact that they had a nearly full house.

Brother Michael, having been left at the Institute, was standing in the corner, his face turned away. Henry was in another corner, the right corner to Charlotte's bed, which was set against the east wall of the room, scratching on hard black paper with a jagged piece of chalk and scrubbing away parts he didn't like with a bit of scouring sponge, leaving the two women and the tiny babe in their little vicinity about the bed.

"Is there anything else I can get for you, Charlotte?" Sophie wondered breathlessly, taking a seat on the foot of the bed, which was made up with a beautiful quilt that was soft to the touch and a deep shade of dark brown.

"No, it's quite all right," Charlotte said. "You've been running around like Lucy. You should take a nice rest."

"Lucy is busy preparing things for the servants who are coming in this afternoon," Sophie said. "There's seven coming. Is that the number you had previously secured?"

Charlotte said after a moment, "Yes," and she tucked back her nightgown and placed little Charles against her shoulder, and she patted against his white gown as he gnarled at his fist and gave a little burp before laying against his mother's shoulder, his orange hair popping against the whiteness of it all. "It seems that they are all keeping up their end of the deal, which is good, considering all the guests. I've barely seen any of them."

Sophie bit her lip and then looking to Charlotte, someone who she knew she could tell anything to, said, "Is it bad of me to think none-too-highly of the lot of them?"

"As long as you love Gideon, and can not detest his brother's presence, you should be all right," Charlotte said, smiling as she patted her son, making him let out a little yawn.

"There are so many of the guests here, though. It'll be nice when the only Lightwoods here are Gideon and Gabriel," Sophie said, sounding relieved.

"And you, for tomorrow you shall be Mrs. Lightwood," Charlotte reminded her, wearing a pleasant smile, which then turned to a worrying frown when she saw the younger girl look away, frowning to herself. "Aren't you excited about that, Sophie? Or did you forget that you'll no longer be a Collins?" Charlotte wondered.

Sophie turned back to Charlotte and said, her voice hesitant, "I don't mind be marrying to Gideon at all, Charlotte. You know that I love him dearly. It's just that his name is very prominent in the world of Shadowhunters, a very prestigious name, and he is a higher class man that I'm not quite deserving, and what I believe I am trying to say, Charlotte, is that I don't think I can live up to the name of Lightwood."

Charlotte privately thought that the name of Lightwood could not be desecrated any further, what with Benedict Lightwood turning into a great worm and the scandal with his wife and the brother, and then there had been Tatiana Blackthorn with her husband eaten by her father, which was quite catastrophic, and she was certain that dear Sophie could do nothing but improve the name of Lightwood, and so she said firmly, deliberately with the firmness of a mother indeed, "Sophie Collins, if there is one thing you are, it is a good person. You have never brought shame to any name, and you never shall, for you are worth ten Lightwood relatives, and you are going to be a damn good wife to Gideon."

Sophie looked at her with such wide eyes that Charlotte just realized that she had cursed, and she abruptly sat up, holding her baby against her shoulder, and cleared her throat, and said, "Pardon my language. Will . . . his words can be . . . absorbed and put out." Charlotte shook her head and wished that that boy didn't curse under his breath so much, for now she had just cursed in front of her friend and her son, and she flushed but then turned to Sophie and said, "When you go into Idris tomorrow, do it with a head held proud. Like a Lightwood, and you shall be a good addition to the name of Lightwood, for the only thing you can do is improve it."

Sophie smiled quietly to herself at that, the scar that ran down her face disappearing a bit by her mouth, as it was hidden away by her lips. "Thank you, Charlotte," she said. "You don't know just how good that is to hear."

Charlotte smiled back, and felt that the girl just wanted to have a talk to her and get some approval, and Charlotte knew she had earned whatever she could say about her. She straightened, knowing the conversation about the worries of Sophie living up to the great and powerful name of Lightwood was over, and holding the child away from her a bit, said, "Sophie, would you like to hold Charles?"

"Me?" Sophie said, surprised, putting a hand against her heart. The only people who had held the baby were the Silent Brothers, Charlotte, Henry, and Aunt Callida, and her heart was pounding fiercely with the desire to hold the small baby.

"You're earned a small respite, and I feel as if I should fall asleep. Take him and keep him calm for a few minutes, please, for he had kept me up half the night, the little devil," Charlotte said with a smile. She tucked the blankets around Charles a bit more and said, "Let's hope he doesn't take after Will and keep me up all the time." Charlotte could imagine a little four-year-old Charles dashing about the Institute, trying to catch Will, who would no doubt try to encourage him to run about and play freely, like he had with Jem, and only with Jem. And she privately thought that it would be just a short while before Charles had a playmate or two, courtesy of Sophie and Gideon, Will and Tessa.

Sophie took the child into her arms, thinking breathlessly about how light he was. She tucked back the blanket so she could take in his entire face and gasped and said, turning to Charlotte, who was laying back into her pillows, "He has freckles on his cheekbones."

"That's a something he got from Henry, then," Charlotte said, glancing at her husband, whose back was bent over a table, his hands moving quickly as he wrote and sketched away. She smiled when she saw the faint freckles against his face, which was concentrated on his drawing. He looked awfully determined with his invention, and perhaps it was that determination that made the freckles on his face pop in the dull light flooding in through one of the windows. There was a something that lit up in him as he worked, and Charlotte never knew to watch him when he worked away, but she now couldn't look away.

When she finally closed her eyes to take an eager nap, his face was the last she saw.

* * *

Will, taking in a deep breath as his chest heaved, his feet trembling slightly from the bad stance he had on a beam, decided that this attack was not going well.

It seemed like the little devils had somehow multiplied, breaks into far more creatures as they seethed and clawed away at the Shadowhunters. Will wondered how they had gotten in; he hadn't seen any holes emitting demons from another dimension or from hell. But there was more, far more than there had been at the beginning of the battle, and he would never say it aloud, admit it to anyone, barely even himself, but he was getting grimly worried. This was saying a lot, and so he didn't like saying it as he ducked away from a creature that was slipping around a beam above his head, its legs clinging to the wood with its body upside down and its head releasing several slippery tongues that were as pointed as thorns.

He ducked away again and twisted back, his seraph blade swishing in his hand as his lips formed a thin line and the blade dove up, planting squarely into the the creature, which was dripping with limbs and claws and strange appendages and slime. It made a squelching noise, the seraph blade pinning it to the beam, and it fell away into itself with a loud scream.

Will winced and took in the entire sight of the floor. The Shadowhunters, who were so usually able to last for so long, had been fighting against the legions for over an hour, and their runes were losing their renewing strength, leaving them panting, with sore limbs and gasping breaths. There was no time to stop and apply more runes to one's skin, though, not when a monstrous demon could come and chomp away at your head, eating away at your body and soul.

Will stepped back and leapt down, landing on two bent legs, and he whipped up and kicked the head of a demon that was trying to overtake him from behind. He could see Gabriel reaching him and trying to slice the demon into delicately thick pieces of evil spirit. The two circled the demons and Gabriel said, "The number of creatures has multiplied. There's far too many to defeat with the number of Shadowhunters we have."

Will grunted and ran in circles around the demons, chasing Gabriel as the creature began to look a bit dizzy, its eyes unclear as it tried to keep up with the fast little Shadowhunters, as he said, "Wonderful deduction, Gabriel. And what do you suggest we do about it?"

And there a sudden crashing noise, one that sent sharp jags and puzzle pieces of razor-sharp broken glass into the air as great shapes came in through the windows, landing on their leathery paws with loud, biting growls, their teeth already showing the blood of the kill. It was still early morning, still so dark, and the moon was still out in the air, clouds floating past it, but the veil of dawn not quite covering it.

Will and Gabriel moved away from each other and sent their blades home into the demon, and Will look across the screeching corpse to Gabriel and said, "That wasn't exactly what I was thinking of."

The large beasts, with their jaws outstretched, their powerful limbs covered in thick, dirty gray fur, leapt at the demons, scratching away at them with their claws, making the demons hiss and go against the werewolves.

Gabriel frowned and said, "Why are they helping us?"

Will got a sudden thought, and he smiled, despite the fact that his face was covered in cuts from falling pieces of workhouse and blood creeping down from said cuts, and ichor that had sputtered out of heavy wounds from the demons, and he shook his head and didn't say a word. He started at once to one of the large demons, catching him off guard and slicing his head off neatly, making his body tremble in horror and dissolve away.

The werewolves were helpful in setting to take down the demons. While they could not kill them, they could scratch at them, chase them and corner them, and Shadowhunters, swallowing their utter disgust at working with werewolves, leapt over the beasts and hit the demons with a fell swoop of their seraph blades. And Will raced ahead when he saw a black hole open up in the air, a swirling mix of madness and darkness and blackness that led to what hellhole the demons were going back to. He ran forward, his blade in front of him glowing like an angel, as the head demon stepped in and disappeared, and then the hole closed off, and Will leapt into empty air, landing with a growl on the wooden boards, receiving a heavy blow to his shoulder, which quickly began to ache. He stood up, not stopping to try to rub it in pain, as a mundane would do in battle, and turned to see a giant hole open in the air, sounds and smells and looks of some other horrible dimension. And into the hole were fleeing dozens of demons, knocking over Shadowhunters and throwing werewolves, making them whelp and whimper as they landed, as they ran and dashed into the hole.

And there was nothing the Shadowhunters could do about them escaping, and as the last one slipped away, the hole disappeared, revealing nothing behind it but the wall of the workhouse.

The demons were gone, but the smell of their presence still lingered as the Shadowhunters turned about to the werewolves around them, bearing their glowing seraph blades.

Will was bearing his seraph blade, his jaw set when he saw the werewolves. It was strange for them to come and help them, downright suspicious. Downworlders and Shadowhunters were barely on even terms with each other, and for the werewolves, who thought that Shadowhunters thought themselves far more superior than themselves, to degrade themselves to come and help the Shadowhunters, who were the ones to slaughter the demons, it was maddening in thought to Will.

Light came pouring in through the dusty overhead windows, flowing through and touching the floors. Sunlight, and the werewolves' paws disappeared into humans hands, their claws turning into fingernails, their backs and torsos and limbs and heads losing their glossy but matted hair, transforming into mops of black or white or blond hair. There was women and men and children all picking themselves up from the floor, staring at the Shadowhunters defiantly, and Will felt his limbs relax and his anger lighten slightly when someone came through the crowd of werewolves, all surrounded by Shadowhunters. The someone was dressed in a semi-elegant waistcoat and trousers and silken stockings and boots. He was frowning, his fine face looking greatly annoyed by Will, who said, "Good morning, Scott. Have a good time off at the hunt?"

Woolsey scowled. "What happens at werewolf hunts remain within the clan, Shadowhunter. It's none of your business."

"I was just wondering why you were around this workhouse so early in the morning," Will said, his voice holding a note of warning.

Woolsey looked coolly at Will for a moment, taking his appearance, his _disgusting_ appearance, in, and said, "My friend, Magnus Bane, I believe you know him, sent me a message this morning. Despite my form, I still hold a note of humanity, Herondale, and I could understand what the message wanted, and because I am not one to disappoint my friends, I brought my pack here. Decided that with our forms, we could provide enough service to satisfy his request."

"This was done for Magnus, then?" Will said.

"Against my better judgment, yes," Woolsey said, spitting his words and looking angry at also himself. "Not for any of you Shadowhunters. You probably deserve whatever casualties you procure."

"How heartwarming, Woolsey, but your services are no longer required." Will, to everyone's surprise, placed his seraph blade back into his belt, its sharp blade turning once more to the clear, crystal coolness of glass. "As for myself and my kind, we're returning to the Institute. Your services are accepted." And Will turned away to the door, and Woolsey spat under his breath something that was very derogatory to the name of Shadowhunter, but because they had done a noble thing, Will did not turn back and smash insults in the pack leader's face, as he wanted to. But he respected a deed, and so he gulped back his angry words and took the entrance doors, and slowly the crowd of Shadowhunters started to follow him, all covered in filth, and the werewolves climbed through the broken windows and went out through the back door, all their backs turned to those of the Shadowhunters.

**FIGHT SCENE OVER. Thanks for reading! God bless you!**


	13. The Aftermath of Such a Fight

_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Infernal Devices. WATCH OUT WESSA FLUFF. HE HE HE.**

Sophie was busy with Charlotte in her room, and so Tessa was the one who took charge of the Institute while the Shadowhunters were gone. She stood by the window and welcomed in some servants who were to help Bridget and Lucy. Tessa knew they were going to be welcomed with great relief by Lucy, as Bridget's singing had gone from forlornly sad to cheerfully morbid.

It was still early in the day, so many of the Shadowhunters who had stayed behind from the hunt were wandering about the Institute, stopping in Tessa's precious library, sipping tea in the sitting room and parlor, and taking tours, which Cecily, groaning, took them on, for she did this not for them but for the rest of them so they didn't have a bunch of complaining Lightwood guests. But she really did it specifically for Gabriel.

Several carriages had disappeared from the stables, Cyril and some coerced Shadowhunters driving them to the workhouses to pick up the ones fighting with Will.

Tessa did not know when they would come back, but they had left over an hour ago and she was expecting them all in time for lunch. So she paced in the front of the Institute, on its topmost floor, the attic, having found a place not taken over by Lightwoods. The window in front of her showed the streets of London being traversed by many a passers-by, but none that she was interested in.

She was worried, more worried than she thought she should be. About the hunt, how it would go, and whether or not they would truly be able to foil the plans of the demons, for the thought of the Branwells' child being taken away pained her. She set to put the latter thought out of her mind as she paced across the dusty floor. The room was not one frequently cleaned. It showed against the walls, covered in dust, and the window panes, smudged with dust and insects walking daintily up and down its panes.

Tessa looked away from the window, knowing that they weren't there. Her eyes slid along the floor until they came to rest on the center, where she knew there was still the faintest of bloodstains. It was there where Will had been coughing up the holy water, blood and water spewing out of his mouth and soaking his clothes, and it had been the place of their first kiss, that wonderful, beautiful thing that sent her trembling and him throwing her away from him. That was a true source of pain. It made Tessa look away now, and before her eyes were the carriages coming around from the left to the front of the Institute's fence. The driver came down and opened the fence and Tessa saw someone stepping out of the carriage, familiar black hair all disheveled, clothes soaked through with filth, and she saw him look up. There was her Will. She gave him a quick look, one that was excited and scared all at once, and she started to the door and went pounding down the heavy stairs to the first floor of the Institute, only to find herself in the crosshairs on the stoop, looking anxiously for Will but not seeing him.

She saw Gabriel and Gideon (making her relieved), each of them supporting one of their sister's arms between them, and she said, "Have any of you seen Will?"

"He went inside," Gabriel said, and Tessa nodded and turned about and was nearly knocked over by the flying, determined figure of Cecily, who had her lips in a thin line as she went to the Lightwoods.

Tessa searched the bottom floor of the Institute, though not entering the many bedrooms. When she came to the parlor she found Will, who looked to have just entered there as well. He was looking at Magnus Bane, who was lounging on one of the couches, fully dressed in sharp British clothes, his hair still slick and wet from washing. A delicate China teacup handle danged from his pinkie.

"Magnus Bane," Will said, almost in a threatening manner, though also with a note of 'Why?' in his voice.

Magnus smiled, looking completely relaxed in his sprawled state across the couch. "Enjoy the help, Herondale?" he said lightly. "Woolsey owed me a favor. I knew you could need it."

"And it was used. But honestly, Bane. . ." Will said, shaking his head, looking away from Magnus, who leaned forward slightly, looking eager for a thank you. "You just can't do that. Shadowhunters don't fight with werewolves, and vice versa."

"That's the rule of our society, isn't it, Will?" Magnus said. He grinned. "Rules are made to be broken."

"Only by you and me, Magnus," Will said. He turned to leave and Magnus sat up a bit more, saying, "Don't take it as a gift toward anyone. I did it because I wanted to, and I knew Woolsey keeps his word."

Will turned at the doorway, winked at Tessa, who thought she hadn't been seen, and said, "If that is what you'd like to think, be it so, Magnus," and he closed the door behind him, leaving only him and Tessa in the empty hallway. Tessa, having had the time to search the rooms, left enough time for everyone else to disappear into their rooms. The witchlight was not very bright around here, seeing as the presence of Shadowhunters was low.

Tessa took in his appearance, looking horrified and letting out a laugh at how horrible he looked.

Will had his arms out, and he said, "What? No hug for me?"

"Will, you're disgusting!" Tessa said, laughing.

"What? Not very much so. There's no one here to watch us. We can kiss each other as passionately as you wish," Will said.

"Your clothes, Will," Tessa said.

"Oh," Will said, gazing down at his disorderly appearance. "That." He caught Tessa's eye and gave her the most mischievous look, a gleam in his eye. "Shall I discard them for you?"

"Not in the hall," Tessa said.

"Oh, location, location, location," Will said, stepping toward her, planting his hands against the dark walls, on either side of her head. Tessa could feel his breath against her, his hair playing against her forehead, and he closed his eyes and chuckled. "Trifling worries," he said, his voice but a husky breath. One of his hands reached out and drew back her hair behind her ear before it dipped down to capture her cheek, her hair falling away from the position he had left it in. He leaned in and gently whispered against her lips, barely touching them, his barely a finger-breadth away from hers, "There's no need to worry. Or to think. Don't think. Just feel, Tess," and he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, quickly catching her in a kiss she had been looking forward to.

Slowly, her hands reached up and grasped his shoulders, and he smiled against her lips, feeling at once all the emotions that had been running through his head for so long. That he was finally able to kiss his sweet Tessa, and she kissed him back, and suddenly all those months of avoiding her and being brash and hurting her were diminished and tucked away in his mind for a moment, and he held her for a moment. Then something in him died when he heard her breathe and say, breaking off from him, "We must get back, get you cleaned up."

"No, no, no, Tessa," Will said, breaking away and looking longingly at her. "Don't be sensible. Let's be wild and reckless," and his hand was so soft and gentle against her cheek that Tessa almost gave in to him, but she laughed, warm and bright, and said, "Yes, because I would love to kiss you senseless in your disgusting, demon-covered gear, isn't that it, Will?"

"I didn't know you wanted that," Will said, surprised. "So, does that mean we can continue?"

"When you're cleaned and dressed in a better fashion," Tessa said.

Will looked slightly appalled. One of his thumbs slipped under one of the straps of leather, and he said, "I should have you know that this gear is the most fashionable accessory in all of Downworld," but he stepped back, watching her with his bright blue eyes as he offered his elbow and said, "Can I at least offer the fine lady an escort to her room?"

"THAT would be highly appreciated, Mr. Herondale," Tessa said, firmly taking his broad arm in hers, careful not to get any demon filth on her own clothes. As they began to walk, she added, "And I would highly appreciate it if Mr. Herondale came along to my room once he is refreshed."

"Only to make me more out of breath? Sneaky, Miss Gray," Will said lightly.

Tessa could only smile conspiratorially at him.

* * *

There was a massive frenzy to get inside the Institute to get out of their clothes, all the Shadowhunters stony-faced and filled with a sort of indignation about the werewolves stepping it when not too many of them thought that the help was needed. They were talking fiercely in little groups on their ways to their suites, their tones annoyed and their voices biting. However, Gideon was silent as he helped his brother Gabriel take their sister, who was turning a bit bigger than he had thought she would at nearly five months, down to her room, after her insisting that her body was fine decided them to head there instead of the infirmary.

Gabriel was talking up a storm.

"That was reckless, Tatiana; you weren't supposed to do that. Didn't any of the Silent Brothers ever tell you not to go heading straight into a battle scene while with child—?" Gabriel, only having one younger sibling, was fiercely protective of Tatiana, and thought none-too-highly of some of the choices she made. But she barely listened to him, her face crossed in a manner that said that she was tired of listening to her brother's voice, as he went on and on as they made their way down the dark halls to her room, at whose door she turned stoutly and stared at her brothers mutinously.

"Thank you and good day, gentlemen," Tatiana said curtly, and she was out of their sight in two swift jerks of a door.

Gabriel stared at the dark wood with an aghast expression. "That was not good for her."

"What, the fighting or your relentless scolding?" Gideon wondered. He may have scolded his siblings terribly in the past, with the sound and look of a patronizing parent, but he had never rambled like that. Gabriel hadn't seen his sister in so long, though, that Gideon was sure that he was trying to cram several months' worth of scolding into one long speech.

Gideon turned away from his brother, whose lips were white and tightened as he stomped off, sure to find his room without his brother with him, and spotted Sophie walking down the halls, a searching look on her face, for him, no doubt. He walked swiftly to her, calling "Sophie!" as to not startle her, for there was a hell-bent expression on her crossed face that would swiftly turn astonished if he merely caught her arm without notice.

She turned to him with a relieved look as he came up and caught her arms in his large, warm hands, and she said, looking up into his kind face, "I was a bit worried as to where you had gone off to."

"Gabriel and I were taking our sister down to her room. Tatiana, do you remember her?" Gideon said.

Sophie looked a little aloft for a moment, recalling when she had seen the woman, and then nodded, having met her briefly when she had come in. She didn't look like a very happy person, but Sophie decided not to comment on it as she said, "She went along as well?"

"Yes, and made Gabriel very mad in the process," Gideon said. "He's always been protective of her, ever since Will embarrassed her at one of our Christmas parties some years back."

Sophie frowned. "Will is always embarrassing someone."

"It is Will's nature. Don't worry, I don't believe she is scarred forever," Gideon said, and then his voice dropped and he shook his head and said, "I'm sorry I said that to you, Sophie."

That was when Sophie caught his phrasing, and she looked to the ground and shook her head.

"Don't think on it, Gideon. It was a phrasing of words. You were not trying to truly be unkind—"

"But I never should have said that. It was unthinkable, a completely unthinkable thing for me to do, and I said it aloud, and I'm sorry, Sophie," Gideon said, leaning a little closer to her so that his tall frame could be more level with her more petite one. "Your scar isn't what defines you, Sophie."

"I know that now, Gideon," Sophie said, her voice trembling ever-so-slightly. She sighed and said, no, whispered, "Before I met you, I thought all anyone could see was my scar. My view on that softened slightly with Charlotte, but I still felt it, like a branding, against my face, when I talked with her. But with you, it's like it's no longer there. That because you can't see it, I can't see it."

Gideon didn't smile. He simply dipped forward a bit and caught her in a kiss, his hand following his action to carefully hold her head in position to keep her against him.

Sophie was most definitely caught surprised, but it was not a bad surprise. Because she still felt a bit in her servant status, and because Gideon was such a gentleman, they didn't kiss far as much as Tessa and Will did, so every kiss, every touch, was precious.

He parted from her after a few seconds, his body alight with heavy breathing, but no sound came from him. He looked her patiently in the eyes, and she blushed under his gaze, something he didn't often see Sophie do.

"You're right," he whispered. "I don't see it," and he kissed her gently once more, only this was placed against her soft cheek, right next to the scar, though neither of them remembered that fact.

* * *

That entire day, Friday, was as a normal and pleasantly smooth day as they could have in such a busy week. No Silent Brothers were urgently called, seeing as there was little injuries the Shadowhunters procured that couldn't be touched up with a few _iratzes_. There was talk, much talk, in the sitting room and parlor and bedrooms and dining room about the werewolves joining in, all muttering and musing over when the demons would show up again, if they even did. Many were sure that they were gone for good, while others, including Will, weren't so sure.

But Will had no time to brood and muse over such a thing when he was being tossed each and which way; fitting for a suit, taking dance lessons with the girls and the Lightwood brothers with Magnus, who stood in the corner of each room he was in and smirked at what obvious fluster Will Herondale had found himself.

"It isn't good manners to be lurking in corners, Bane," Will spat as he was turned away, his hair tossing everywhere, as Tessa laughed and bent under his arm as they spun.

"As if you care about good manners, Will," she said, turning and ducking and barely managing to not run into Sophie, who looked as light as air on the arm of her fiancée.

"I have more so than the likes of Bane," Will said.

Magnus smiled in his corner, a delightful twist to his smile. A mischievous spark. "Believe what you will, Will. Deceive yourself if it makes you feel better."

But despite everyone running about and several guests complaining about not getting a servant to help go over and nitpick their clothes for errors, things were going well. The kitchen had been smelling like high heaven since seven that morning. Bridget was like a vulture, watching over her crew of servants for mistakes as she bristled and muttered and sang as she stirred heavy pots and basted heavy roasts and baked cakes and whipped eggs; she went to the front of the kitchen on occasion, her intuition telling her there was a curious Will Herondale peeking through the door, trying sneak in and catch a taste of something.

She always took her wooden cooking spoon with her. He always smirked at her and hurried away, his quick Shadowhunter step just a bit faster than her anger-propelled run.

Charlotte had many visitors in her bedroom; she took to the seat by her fire in order to receive them. Tessa and Sophie stood by as nursemaids, as Lucy was busy running around to the every command of the Lightwoods, and Aunt Callida, after being told that she could do what she wanted to by Charlotte, took charge as the head of the Institute. Well, not exactly. She became the headmistress, a sort of housekeeper, taking charge, checking in on things.

Charles did not allow his mother much sleep, but Charlotte didn't seem to mind. She was too enchanted by her little darling, who was tinier than he should have been, being born a month before he should have, but he fit snugly in her arms, his tufts of dark orange hair sticking out every which way. She was delighted by him. So was his father, when Henry could look up from his works and admire his family.

Sophie, for the entire day, was a rosy pink and felt like she could barely stop the smile on her face. Tessa was her constant companion; she dragged her someplace secret. The someplace was the front of the Institute, where Sophie was shocked to find Jessamine, looking as bedraggled as she did that fall day she was murdered. It seemed the thing to do, and Sophie recovered herself well enough to take slight offense to Jessamine's comments and suggestions for tomorrow.

"And your hair, you must do something to do it. I've got combs in my dresser, use those if you have to. And there's a bottle of perfume; goodness knows you can't be horrid smelling when you're marrying a man with a prestigious name of LIGHTWOOD." Jessamine gave a haughty sniff.

Sophie looked a little disgusted that Jessamine had retained her upper-class airs even after her death, but still, she thanked Tessa after curtsying to Jessamine, who did the same to the best of her ability, her manners still retaining somewhat, as they headed up the stairs into the quiet Institute. It was past ten, and the halls, filled with the eerie glow of the witchlights, were relievingly empty and void of Lightwood kin and guests alike.

"By this time tomorrow, the party will be raging and you'll be a married woman, Miss Collins," Tessa said, her grey eyes sparkling with mischief and pleasure as she looked at Sophie, who was still glowing like a freshly lit candle.

"That's strange to think about, and yet it seems like it can't come fast enough," Sophie said.

Tessa grasped her hands and spun Sophie around, making the two girls burst into peals of laughter. "You've bided your time, paid your dues. The hour is soon to be at hand, Sophie," Tessa said.

"You sound like Will," Sophie said. "He would say something similar."

"Yes, possibly, if he wasn't out like a drunkard on his bed, still in his ruffled clothes," Tessa said. They walked down the carpeted halls and nearly tripped over a familiar grey lump that was walking about with a smug and important wiggle in his hips. Sophie caught a hold on the paneling along the halls and Tessa shifted so her feet were settled against the floor, and they both turned with twin looks of confusion as Church, his tail drifting lazily in the air above him, walked away from them, barely noticing that he had knocked them around. He was in his own little world, away from them, stalking up and down the halls of the Institute at night.

"I forgot Magnus had brought him," Tessa said, straightening. She watched as he disappeared into the edging of the shadows around the halls and then turned to Sophie, and they bid each other good night, heading off each to their own bedrooms with the sole purpose of acquiring as much sleep as they could. That task was going to be nearly impossible, they knew, for there were far too many things happening. A new baby, several dozen guests, the overhead feeling of a cloud of demons above their heads, and a wedding in Idris.

**WEDDING COMING UP NEXT. YESSSSS.**

**Thanks for reading! PLEASE review! **


	14. Getting Dressed, and, Oh, Look, Advice

_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Infernal Devices. WEDDING STUFFFFFFF**

Breakfast was not a large affair in the Institute that morning. The wedding was going to be at eleven, followed by a large lunch and dance in the ballroom. Nobody cared about breakfast anyway, not when they were leaving at ten o'clock and they had their makeup to apply, and their hair to fix, and would the servants hurry up? There was dresses to press, wigs to fix, and this all sent the servants running in many different directions, their black dresses flapping around their legging-ed legs. They withheld their quick comments and bit their lips as they carried out trays and went over things with brushes.

Tessa came careening into Sophie's room, which held only Sophie and Lucy. Her face was flushed as she came bearing the combs Jessamine wanted. "Bridget isn't singing. She is on an absolute rampage," she said, scattering the combs and a pair of gloves over a coverlet set against the bed. She looked up to Lucy, whose black hair was tied up in a bun on her head, and said worryingly, "I'm not sure which is worst."

"Oh, the sin'in', most definitely," Lucy said, nodding her head quickly to make her point as she turned to Sophie, who was standing in her slip and petticoats. Her face was flushed a bright pink, her eyes shining; her hair was all taken care of, piled on her head in a cascade of curls that had thinned to ringlets that were falling down the sides of her head.

"Oh, Sophie, you look gorgeous. And you're not even wearing your dress yet. Gideon will be so pleased," Tessa said, straightening and staring at her friend with undisguised amazement.

Sophie looked away from the combs and looked to Tessa, smiling at her friend's attire. Her pale hands were slipped into slim, light gold gloves. Her collar glowed with gold chains, her eyes a piercing silver amongst all the gold. Her dress, silk and velvet, with folds, was slimming and not as voluminous as Sophie's dress was, which was good, so Tessa would be able to walk around normally. "At least I know I won't have Will after me," Sophie said sarcastically, though she was smiling too hard to be mean. "Even this dress won't bring him after me, and for that I am grateful."

Tessa laughed. Will was never after Sophie, even if she wore the most beautiful dress in the world, which was now being brought out and laid against the bed by Lucy, making Tessa and Sophie catch their breaths and stare at it. It was like just the beginning of the week. So much had happened since then, though, but now was the time for Sophie to wear her beautiful dress instead of just making sure it fit.

It took Tessa and Lucy ten minutes to fit it on Sophie, pulling on it, and help her into her beautiful shining slippers. Then there was touch ups with powder. Then Tessa stood on the armoire to stick the combs delicately into Sophie's bun, making her entire body tremble with restraint as she kept herself from falling into a heap on the floor.

When Tessa was done, she bounded down gratefully and stood in the background of the mirror as Sophie took in her form, though no longer smiling. Her scar was still there, of course, but it was surrounded by jewelry and gold and a delightful face which made it not intimidatingly horrifying but a mere part of Sophie to get used to.

"You look beautiful, Sophie," Tessa said, coming to her side.

Sophie turned to her; a truly welcoming smile stretched on her lovely face. "Thank you, Tessa. I believe that is everything. I am fully dressed for my wedding."

"It will be an excellent ceremony, that is for sure," Tessa said. She glanced past Lucy, who was gathering the remaining combs and gloves and cosmetics, toward the door, and said, talking to Sophie while still looking at it, "I should go help Charlotte."

Sophie nodded, but then she remembered something; her dress ruffled against the furniture as she bent down to the ground to pick up something, making Tessa widen her eyes and hurry to restrain the skirts before they blew up like a hoop and exposed Sophie's bloomers and legs to the world.

Sophie came popping up holding a delicate brown basket in her hands. Tessa looked astonished at seeing blue flowers, slender peedwells; they were nearly the exact color of Will's eyes. Upon closer inspection Tessa saw that they were full but dried, and they had clasps under them attached to fine cloth that kept the delicate little flowers from falling apart.

"These are for your hair. I thought that maybe I should've saved them for your and Will's wedding, but you needed something special for today, too. Your first Shadowhunter wedding. Besides, it'll guarantee that Will will keep his eyes away from me," Sophie said, with a laugh.

Tessa could barely speak; these gems were far more dear accessories than everything Jessamine had gotten for her. Sophie beamed and carefully set the pins into Tessa's bun, her teeth subconsciously biting her lip near her scar in concentration; once she was done, she turned so that they could see each other in the mirror, which was floor length, barely containing Sophie's beautiful golden dress.

"If you had wings you'd look like my clockwork angel," Tessa said.

"I'm not so much a clockwork angel as much as a bride," Sophie said.

Tessa spied the runes along Sophie's hands and arms. They could be barely seen under her sleeves, with plenty of room for the ceremonial runes to be put against the back of her hands and inside her wrists; but the sacred marks still told all that Sophie Collins-soon-to-be-Lightwood, was a Shadowhunter.

"A warrior bride," Tessa said, "and that's far better than a clockwork angel."

"If would be, if I was a warrior and actually fought in battles. Which I will. I hear Will wants to take me on my first hunt with Gideon and Gabriel," Sophie said.

"And maybe Cecily," Tessa said. It was obvious to everyone how determined the youngest Herondale child was in getting into demon chases and hunts. She was one to get the rush of excitement, Cecily, while Tessa felt like a good rest was right for her after so much had gone down.

"More than likely, yes," Sophie said, and then was a clearing of a throat and the two turned to see Lucy halfway out the door, her eyes moving frantically to the hall, saying, "Misses, it's nearly ten a'ready!"

Sophie gulped and Tessa began to help her with her train until she was freed from the obstacles of the furniture deterring her. Then she gently scooped up, as gently as if it was a baby, the pale gold veil that was laying across the pillow, and hurried after the other girls.

* * *

Gideon had bathed very early that morning; his suit was pressed and ready, his hair was combed and slicked back, and he now straightened his coattails and started on addressing his shirt when there was a loud knock on the door.

Wondering exactly who it could be, Gideon said, "Come in," and started to button the pale gold buttons running up his shirt. He, unlike his father, never needed a manservant to help him get dressed. He was rather self-sufficient. So it was unlikely that there was someone sent in to help him get dressed.

No, it was rather two persons who found it probably far more enjoyable to deter him while he got ready for his wedding. Will came bursting in, his hair tossed and looking delightfully uncombed. He was wearing a black suit with golden accents, saying as he came in, "Gold isn't my color. Black is, and I suppose I've fixed it all right," and for further emphasis, he fixed the buckles at his chest and smiled his dashing smile and strided across the room, his sleek black boots looking polished with his black dark pants. His vest was a gold that looked so pure against the blackness of his clothes; his waistcoat billowed out with his coattails, showing the golden buttons sewed in. And, the worst and best part, he was wearing a top hat, one that he took off and twirled around in his hand, looking as pleased as punch with himself. He caught sight of himself in the mirror, which Gideon was looking into, his face set in a determined manner, as if he was trying very hard not to address Will, and said, "My, yes. Fantastic. And why the sore face, Gid?"

"The appearance of yourself may have had something to do with it," Gabriel said, coming in quickly and closing the door with a soft click. His dark brown hair was curly but tucked into a neat hairstyle. His sharp green eyes went excellently with his gold and black suit, which was more gold than black, making Will tsk at his fashion choices.

"Or maybe it was mere prospect of you coming in that," Will said. He shook his head and leaned against the footboard of Gideon's bed. He clicked his tongue. "Distasteful."

Gideon didn't sigh, but he felt like it as he finished with his buttons and turned to the two younger men. "Is there a particular reason you two came in here?"

"First things first, congratulations on landing yourself a very temperamental young woman who will not put up with any shit you give her," Will said matter-of-factly, holding up a hand and cutting off Gabriel, who was saying, "I came to get my tie—"

"Quiet, Gabriel. Next, Gideon, we came to bestow upon you the best advice we, as men, can offer you as how to be married." Will crossed his arms over his legs and looked as innocent as Will Herondale could.

Gideon did not seem perturbed; his hands were busy with checking his buckles and twisting his boots onto his feet. "I'm not sure what sort of exemplary advice I'm to get about marriage coming from Will Herondale and my younger brother."

"Plenty, that's what. Now, first, girls will complain about clean clothes and whatnot. Who needs clean clothes? And manners, who cares about manners? We're all going to end up wanting to slash each other's throats anyway, so why even bother?" Will said. "They'll probably make negotiations with ghosts behind your back and make you go to bed at a proper time. They're like mothers."

"They probably will be, Will," Gideon said, shaking his head as he crimped the wrinkles out of his trousers.

"They'll think you're at their beck and call, which you are, which makes you their practical slave, which you shall gladly be. They're into kissing a lot more, seeing as they see that as proper, now," Will said. "And there'll be the good old baby making process." Will looked to Gabriel, who was glaring at him and blushing to the purest red he had ever had the pleasure of seeing him turn. Gabriel was always the more proper of the two; it was always too funny to see him turn that way.

Gideon nodded, turning to the two boys, reaching for his suit jacket after adjusting his vest. "I knew that, Will."

"Just making sure," Will said, grinning at him as he picked up his jacket from the top of his disheveled bed. Will looked to Gabriel, who was forcefully pulling his jacket on, as if he couldn't wait to get out of his room with Will talking about sex, and said generously, "And what have you to say as advice for the groom-to-be?"

"I haven't much in answer to that," Gabriel muttered under his breath, positioning his head so it was perfectly stiff and still as he adjusted his collar and folded his jacket cuffs by his wrists.

"Nothing at all?" Will said in a falsetto voice.

"Don't make her mad," Gabriel said after a moment, looking at the wooden floor showing by the rug's edges. "It'll just cause a grudge to form."

Gideon privately thought it would be hard for Sophie to be too angry for so long, seeing as the greatest mift between them had been about hidden away, crumbling scones underneath his bed, but decided not to comment on it for the sake of his brother.

Will, however, wasn't moved into silence. "Don't go to an opium den and get high. Don't leave in the morning saying that you're heading off to play dumb by the bridge. Write horrid poetry for her. Girls love horrid poetry. Well, at least the kind they don't like the same as you."

"Compliment them the best you can," Gabriel said, looking up at his brother.

"Gideon doesn't need to know that, Gabby. He's as charming as they come," Will said, smirking as his top hat came to a stop around his hand and came to a rest atop his head. Normally the ensemble would be accompanied by a lovely gilded topped cane, but Will gravely decided against such a thing. Jem's cane was still hidden away in his room, the blade hidden away in its hollow tube tucked away, making it look so perfectly normal. "Sing songs for her, ones you've made yourself."

"Training with her will work," Gabriel said.

"Don't make bad jokes in front of her father. Actually, do," Will added.

"Hold the parasol—"

"Balance books randomly on her head; tell her it's to help her balance—then, stack as many hats on her head as you can—"

"Do things for her that she would appreciate—"

"Do funny things. Make her mad. Making her mad makes her gorgeous—"

"Do what she says—"

"Do the absolute opposite of what she wants you to do—"

Gideon, now fully dressed, turned to the both of them, and said, "You both are very bad advice-givers, seeing as neither of you are married."

"Engaged. That's a step away," Will pointed out. He stood up and jutted a thumb toward Gabriel. "That's farther than he has ever gone, thank goodness."

"I feel as if I can't trust a word that comes out of your mouths," Gideon said calmly.

"Wise man, Gideon. Sophie's lucky," Will said cheerfully, and out of his pocket came a fob watch, one with delicate etching all along the edges of it. He opened it, revealing a loud ticking sound, and flipped it back together, sticking it back into his pocket with the chain hanging out for show. He smiled a very calm smile and said to Gideon, who was taking a deep breath in, "It's time. Let's get you to the Portal. It'd be a shame for you to be late at your wedding. But also amusing, but I imagine Sophie would have no problem with killing me if you were late, so time to save my head as well," and the three men went out.

* * *

The title wedding parties were assembling downstairs in the meeting room. Henry was dressed in his suit. Charlotte was sitting in a chair next to him, for she was not going to not go to this wedding, no sir. She was balancing wee Charles, who needed to come along with his mother for so long a trip, for no nursemaid could tend to him as Charlotte could, in one arm, covered in blankets and fast asleep, and trying to comb Henry's unruly hair with her free hand. Her hair was tied back in a bun and she was wearing her usual gold wedding gown. She looked a bit lumpy, but she didn't care. She was red in the face, from the exertion of having had help to get down the stairs and from arguing with the Silent Brothers about being allowed to tend the wedding. In only the way Charlotte could, she had accessed a way out of their commands, and they now stood at the stairs. Will almost swore that Brother Michael was scowling underneath his hood, which was impossible, seeing as Silent Brothers barely had any expressions besides the blank, stitched-mouth look.

Will shook his head, though, as he came along to the front of the Portal, where Henry, Charlotte, Charles, and Aunt Callida were, and Magnus Bane as well, who was adjusting the lovely white gloves he had. He looked like an officer from the navy, with a dark blue suit and many buckles. His lips glistened with something likened to shiny cosmetics as he turned to Will and said, "Happy day for the Shadowhunters."

"Indeed," Will said. "Two of our own, joined together in holy matrimony. At the rate of them, there's going to be a steady incline of babies in this Institute. We'll be overrun."

"I may quit you all before I get kicked out," Magnus said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Maybe," Will said. He turned to see Gideon and Gabriel coming down the stairs and scowled. Would they hurry up? Gabriel was the best man, but Will was a groomsmen, and he was feeling responsible for the entire groom's party. They had to arrive at the church first, it was just tradition. And then the guests, and then the bridal party. Henry was going through to make sure Charlotte and baby Charles got through nicely, though he was going to wheel himself down the aisle with Sophie. She had turned down the prospect of Will, who felt offended that she had asked to soften the tiny blow she had dealt him.

The two Lightwood brothers came and Magnus commanded the Portal. Aunt Callida came to push Henry through, though he insisted he could make it through fine, as one of the Lightwood relatives helped Charlotte through while another took the baby in his baby hamper.

The groom's party went through and then there was a great crowd of guests coming flooding down the stairs and gasping in delight and amazement as they walked through the Portal to see the great glass spires of the wondrous city of Idris. Will and Gideon and Gabriel kept to the sidelines as they were passed, and Will was just counting on the last guests coming down the stairs when he heard at the top of the stairs a beloved voice saying, "Sophie, it's ten-thirty! We're running late!"

"Oh, running in a dress is harder than it should be," came the muttered answer of the bride.

Will turned to Gideon with a fierce look, making the Lightwood sigh and turn his back, and then Gabriel and Will were sprinting to the stairs, looking up to see Tessa and Sophie and Cecily with Lucy accompanying them, at the top of the stairs and now coming down.

"You're supposed to come down last with Magnus taking care of the Portal, you know," Will pointed out.

"We had some communication issues, then. We're late, let's get a move on," Cecily said shortly, and she came down the stairs quickly, her black hair curled and bouncing against her shoulders as she passed her brother with no more than a quick glance to him, and said to Gabriel, "Get Gideon through. Get him ahead and we'll come along."

Gabriel nodded and hurried away to guide his now blinded older brother through the Portal.

Magnus was watching all this with a very calm look on his face, if albeit a bit impatient as he examined his gloved fingernails.

"Are you coming along or not?" he said. "It's past ten-thirty, you know. I recalled the time to be eleven when the actual ceremony is supposed to happen. Unless someone made a time change, I agree with the young Herdonale."

Cecily nodded, agreeing with a Downworlder, which was strange, and looked up to see Sophie coming down as quickly as she could, biting her lip, her skirt trailing behind her. Lucy almost stepped on it until it settled on the floor of the meeting room, which was very crowded despite the amount of people.

She took a deep breath and went ahead to the Portal, leaving Will to stare at Tessa. Not with a drooling mouth or a gaping mouth but with an expression that took her in and told her she was beautiful, and she patted his arm and said, "Come on, Will. There's the wedding."

"Really? I didn't know it was a wedding we were attending," Will said as she took his arm and gave him such a look that he clapped his lips close and instead nodded toward Magnus as they stepped through the Portal. The warlock turned, took in the room that was empty, save for himself, nodded, and stepped through the Portal, leaving it open so they could easily get back.

* * *

A carriage came up to the Institute's doors. A very important guest (well, to some) came out, followed by several of its followers. Something, dark and crusty and black, was attached to the fingers of the important demon as it latched its hands on the gate's handles, making it open and all entrance into the courtyard. Its pack of brothers hissed and slided up beside it as the demon headed to the door. The crusty remains of the voice of a wound from a curly black-haired Shadowhunter touched the doorknob, and the door opened smoothly, creaking slightly, but as smooth as butter.

Bridget was singing loudly and commanding her crew of servants as she waltzed around the kitchen, which had its door ajar slightly to allow steam to escape.

A whole big slew of Forsaken emerged in the meeting room, where the spinning circle of the Portal was standing, wide open for anyone to enter through.

**Tessa, she—she said the thing. AND WEDDING STUFFFFF AND ALL THIS STUFF. IT'S TIME TO FREAK OUT.**

**Thanks for reading! And, honestly, please review! It means a lot. :)**


	15. FORSAKEN REPEAT FORSAKEN AHHHH

_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Infernal Devices. :)**

Cecily was a bridesmaid, and had an array of yellow flowers in her bouquet that was tied around with a gold ribbon. She was looking around the front room of the church, a place with long, high windows that let in pouring sunlight, casting beautiful plates of gold across the wooden floor. Tessa, Sophie, Charlotte, Henry, Charles, Aunt Callida, Gabriel, and Will were all fussing as Sophie bent down toward Charlotte to listen to her instructions while Tessa skirted around Sophie, her lips in a line and her eyes worrying over the dress. Charles was screaming on Charlotte's lap and Aunt Callida was trying to get Charlotte to head down the aisle to the front row while Henry leaned over and tried to soothe his child. Gabriel was talking over them, and Will looked not as fussy as the others. As a matter of fact, (the fact was infuriating), he looked terribly smug. He was viewing everything with a light eye, like he was inspecting things and taking them all in for the first time.

Cecily turned when Gabriel came up to her. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down his throat as he said, "We're getting ready to start."

"That's good," Cecily said, looking to Will and Tessa, who was partnering together in a corner. Will was carrying his Tessa away, making her try to dismiss him to get to Sophie, but he popped a kiss on her lips and pulled away, satisfied that she looked dully surprised.

"Calm down, Tess," he said to her. She could only stare at him; the sound of the violin filled the air along with the chatting, and Will's smile faded as he stared at the blood-drained look of his fiancée.

"The violin," she whispered.

"I bet they would have had Jem on the violin for their wedding if he was able to," Will said suddenly, sounding very bitter.

Tessa looked away from him and tidied his tie and collar, whispering, "I'm sure they would have, Will. But there's nothing we can do about it."

"Hope he's happy here." Will's voice was low.

"Maybe," Tessa said. She kissed his cheek softly and said, "Let it go for a moment, Will. Pretend the music is his. Please, Will." She didn't want to cry. Not now. Not at a wedding.

Will did not feel like it, but he took a deep breath and said, "Fine, Tessa." He did not look fine, though, but he cleared his throat and locked away his feelings of anger for the sake of the wedding.

Charlotte and Charles were taken away by Aunt Callida, and suddenly thing grew quiet as everyone got into position.

"Good. I'm ready to get this over with," Cecily said, but her grip on Gabriel's lean, muscular arm told him that she really is excited to do this. She took in a deep breath and exhaled as the doors were opened by ushers, who bowed as they held the doors open.

Agold, long carpet ran down the aisle, yielding to their steps as the pair went down. Tessa and Will came after them into the very large, very tall cathedral. The entire ceiling was tan, but spotted with carvings all intricately carved into the edges, sprawling down and around nearly wall-length stain glass windows, of which there was several, sporting many different depictions of important events with the angel Raziel, with the Mortal Cup and Soul-Sword. The pews were dark mahogany, smooth as silk, and filled with Shadowhunters. Groom's guests on one side, and then those from the Institute on the other. That was lacking compared to the other, but Cecily raised her nose and carried down the aisle with Gabriel at her arm like a queen.

At the altar, which had the Angel carved in the front, holding the Soul-Sword, there were three Silent Brothers behind it. Off to the side were half a dozen more Silent Brothers. The front had the biggest stained glass window, showing a beautiful rendition of the Glass City in the dark maroon and gold and blue colors which made it enchanting to the eyes.

At the bottom of the window was a bench that ran from one end of the stage to the other. It was covered in white candles which set an unearthly, heavenly glow to the room. Bunches of white roses ran the edges of the room, and there was a strange vocalization in the air, as if there was a thousand hollow, lonely voices singing somewhere, but there was no one in a choir. A wizened little Shadowhunter, looking so covered in runes she looked more like a piece of paper than a little person, played at a large organ off to the left of the three Silent Brothers. The pipes were gold and the keys of white elephant ivory, and the black keys as black as the plague, and they danced under the rough hands of the little Shadowhunter.

Gideon was in front of the altar, glancing from the aisle to the steles that were heating up in the Silent Brothers' hands. He watched his brother and his girl walk down the aisle and then part with surprisingly good decorum, as Gabriel came to his side and Cecily stood on the side that was Sophie's, and then Tessa joined her, and Gideon felt a good luck pat on the shoulder from Will. He didn't dare turn back to face them, though. He was feeling nervous, and Will would not be able to help him.

And then the doors opened once more, and Gideon's heart stopped. In the entrance was an angel. Her hair was glowing, her dress, her hands, her flowers, but mostly her face, which hid the scar that marred her there. Sophie was holding delicately the hand of Henry, who had a determined look on his face. He was going to brave going down the aisle using but one hand on his wheelchair, despite, Gideon knew, Sophie's worried suggestions about him not holding her hand. But Henry was vehement when he wanted to, and he was so as he took the two of them down the sprawling roll of gold silk. His trajectory was off a bit, but he bit his lip and kept it straight as Sophie floated down the aisle looking absolutely ecstatic. Her face was lit up, and Gideon felt his mouth go dry as Henry kissed the top of her hand and let her walk up the steps to stand in front of Gideon. This was going to be fun, not being able to speak when it was a ceremony he was participating in.

The Silent Brothers spoke in everyone's minds, the singing and organ music ending abruptly, being stopped so quickly by Brother Enoch, who started to speak about holy matrimony and in the sight of heaven, but Gideon barely heard him. He was looking at Sophie like he could hardly imagine he deserved such a creature.

_The rings, Gideon,_ Brother Enoch said, gesturing to the rings on the altar. They were sitting on a very white pillow. Gideon took them, and repeated to Sophie what Brother Enoch told him, making him look like he had memorized the words.

"Sophia Elizabeth Collins, I do take thee as my wife, as a descendant of the Angel, to take you and love you forevermore, through every ceremony, trial and tribulation in this life, until death do part thee from me, until we meet together in the clouds of the Kingdom. With this ring, I thee wed," Gideon said, his voice very clear and calm. He had calmed the storm in him and was speaking very smoothly, as his father had done before him. It was a family trait, to be able to appear put together in front of the populace.

Sophie was crying. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she was gasping, smiling, to keep the tears from falling and shaming herself in front of the clan. The ring was put on her finger, and then she repeated what Brother Enoch told her, sliding the band onto Gideon's finger, and then it was time for the runes.

One of the Silent Brothers, Brother Levi, stepped forward while Brother Enoch stood back, saying in everyone's heads, _It is now time for the runes to be exchanged._ On the altar, next to the pillow, was a large book, which Brother Enoch now took down and read from. _The runes are to be applied to the bride and groom. Each one is a rune signifying the bond this ceremony has now created between them. Each one binds them closer, leading them to grow together as Shadowhunters, partners, and husband and wife. Brother Levi?_

Brother Levi's stele was glowing in his hand; he asked first for the hand of the groom, the right one. His hand outstretched, a rune was brought down onto the skin, making Gideon flinch slightly. The runes in ceremonies always burned more than ones the Shadowhunters put on themselves. This was one like a loosened braid, three black bands binding together. Brother Michael stepped forward then, doing the same to Sophie, for whom there was a held breath. But the runes did not cause her to screech in agony as the same rune was applied to her right hand. The Silent Brothers stood back, and Brother Michael said, _Join hands, Shadowhunters._

Gideon's felt warm and gentle around Sophie's hand. His touch and the power of the rune sent something through her, like a volt of lightning, but she withheld the gasp and looked anxiously at the Silent Brothers, who commanded they be parted and have put on more runes. The Marriage rune, the Love rune, the Trust rune, which were applied to each one by the opposite spouse-to-be. Sophie held her breath as she carefully etched the Trust rune onto the lower arm of Gideon. He didn't say a word or watch her work, but looked at her eyes the entire time.

Then he did the same, carefully carving the black pair of twisted hands together on her pale white skin. The entire room was deafeningly quiet, the sound of the stele the only noise, until there was a wild howling, and each and every window of the cathedral burst, casting a million pieces of broken, beautiful, glittering glass to the floor. The shattering noise echoed in the great building as Shadowhunters cried out angrily and covered their faces with their arms. Gideon instantly covered Sophie with his body, her rune only halfway done, the stele off, making the rune sizzle.

Will and Gabriel darted amongst the mess once the glass had settled, shouting names of Angels, making their seraph blades glow in their hands, as out of the wreckage appeared grinning, demented Forsaken, ready to tear at the Shadowhunters on their lovely, holy event. Oh, yes. That Portal had worked very well indeed, and they were pleased as they darted forward, talons outstretched, teeth bared.

"Damn," Will said, as the other Shadowhunters immediately stood up, ready to battle, even in their very best. And the place was quickly turned into turmoil.

* * *

Sophie was sure that he had not meant anything bad by it, but Gideon had not finished the rune on her arm. He had gone to find Gabriel to apply_ iratze_ runes on him, for this was quickly becoming a battle, and she was sure that he had forgotten that the rune on her was burning her. She could not call out to him. Even if the rune was not causing her to gasp and barely breathe, her voice would not be able to overwhelm the noise of the battle around her.

She was gasping, gripping her wrist with her hand, which was feeling the burn against her skin. Her skin was all white, a terrifying pale color. She bit her lip, not sure what to do as the rune burned her like a log in a fire.

Suddenly there was someone beside her. She flinched away, sure it was a Forsaken, and the someone yanked his hood off his head, making her gape at him in horror. Jem's mouth was stitched together, red slashes beneath his eyes, his skin a regular healthy skin color. His hair was streaked with black and silver. He hardly seemed to notice her shocked expression as he gently took her wrist and held out his stele. Burning bright, he carefully led the lines together, making it seal and press against her skin with a satisfied sizzle. It was no longing burning deep into her. Instead it strengthened her, though the pain remained. This led to Jem applying an _iratze_ against her skin.

"Brother Zechariah," Sophie said breathlessly, the pain clearing away as his gentle hands swept it away.

_Miss Collins,_ Jem said. He looked at her then, and she swore she saw something flash in his eyes before he drew out his blade and ran out into the mayhem, not even caring what the other Silent Brothers would think when he found his old _parabatai_ running, running fast, his new clothes ruined, after the head Forsaken, who had a crying bundle in his bony clutches.

Jem knew who that was on the Forsaken's hands. He had been admiring him secretly from where he had been sitting in the front row, and now he could hear the screams of Charlotte. In his mind's eye, Henry was frantically trying to calm her down, but there was only one thing the Silent Brother knew to do.

He ran.

He came to pace with Will, who said, "Back off, Silent Brother. Get the other Forsaken."

_I do not fall quickly to your annoyances, Will,_ came the voice in his head. Will stared at him for a second, a thousand emotions crossing his blood spotted pale face, but then he turned away with an almost angry air to his gesture and sped after the Forsaken, who was heading toward the Portal set up outside Idris.

"Let's get him, Jem," Will said, his voice oddly sounding cool, though his body was heavily breathing, turning his face red.

_The Branwell child,_ Jem said quietly. The door to the church was flung open, and the Forsaken disappeared outside just as the two boys came through the double doors to the foyer. They thrust themselves forward and caught the door. Jem held it as Will raced out, and then Jem, yanking his hood back on, slipped through. The door closed quietly, and the boy looked around and spotted Will's black hair around a corner.

Jem ran after him; he realized something very quickly, though. There was many Forsaken running now, not all toward him, but to the same goal. To where Will and the head demon and baby Charles were headed. The Portal. Jem knew they had a Portal, whatever that was, open by the largest spires of glass in the city. His legs were still fast, still used to the quick pace, adrenaline bursting through his veins, of the chase. He missed it. Oh, he'd never admit it, trying to conform to the way of the Silent Brothers, but he missed running. He was burning energy this way. It made him feel something, even if he had no breath.

He found Will and managed to keep pace with him. Will barely noticed him, though Jem knew the breathing was taking a heavy toll on him. He had heard of the demon den raid yesterday. He saw the chaos reign in the church. Will was getting exhausted, and Will Herondale was never exhausted.

But exceptions could be made, of course.

And there it was. Amongst the spires of the glass, the great buildings making up the beautiful, beloved city of Idris, was a black circle in the air, hung there, with no rim like a mirror, but a beautiful view of a long table covered in readying for decorations.

The Institute. There were Forsaken in the Institute, and more heading in.

This was going wrong very, very fast.

Demons were disappearing into it left and right. Jem was surprised that they didn't stay to wreak more havoc on the treasured city of the Shadowhunters, but he was sure it was not on their agenda at the moment. They had the Institute. Bridget. The weapons room. Control. That was what made Will hurry through the sharp pains flying, slicing, slashing through his body as the head Forsaken scooped itself up, the innocent cry of the disoriented child coming from its arms, as it flew through the Portal, which, to the horror of them both, disappeared into a black wisp.

Will brought himself to an abrupt halt. He instantly cursed, his fingertips imbedded in his palms as his fists came raging down. His stele fell with a clatter to the dirty street. He swore again and looked anxiously at the blank space before him. He put his hand there, his fingernails covered in his own blood, and said, his voice strangely hollow, "They're gone. They're in the Institute. They're winning."

_They're not winning, William,_ Jem said.

"Shut up, Jem!" Will said angrily. He looked calm, though, as he stood up from his squatting position and stared at the Silent Brother. He walked past him and said, almost apologetically, "I've got to get that baby back. He means the world to Charlotte and Henry. I need Magnus," and he turned and began at a fast walk, far too tired to be able to jog the two miles or so back to the church to reveal the morbidly bad news.

**AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.**

**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)**


	16. Will is Pretty Awesome

_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Infernal Devices.**

Fortunately, Will and Jem didn't have to run far. Not being able to help a bunch of fiercely proud Shadowhunters, the warlock had gone after the two. He met them nearly a mile away from the church. He had not been allowed onto the holy land, of course, being damned, and had waited on a beautiful bench outside the magnificent building, whistling under his breath and picking petals off of daisies, when he had noticed the demons flooding in.

"I take it the demons were not caught?" he said as the two stony-silent boys came to a stop in front of him.

Will shook his head. "They came in through the Portal. That means they're in the Institute. We need to get back to the Institute; this is turning out far worse than we had anticipated."

Magnus nodded gravely. "Obviously. It would have made more sense for you to have left some more trained Shadowhunters to guard the place instead of a league of ponytailed maids, but seeing as this wasn't in the foreseeable future for you, I can take that in account and not try to blame you." He rubbed his hands together and looks resigned to something. "I'm going to set up a Portal, then, though it'll be hard."

Will clapped a hand on his shoulder, his lips pressed into a thin lin. "Thanks, Magnus."

"I'd say no problem, if I were a liar," Magnus said.

"Embrace that part of you, Magnus, because you're a formidable liar." Will's voice was teasing, yet dead serious. He nodded ahead. "Jem and I are going to tend to those in the church."

Magnus had already started to roll of the black sleeves of his elegant jacket, shrugging off his deliciously swishy black cape. He almost didn't seem to hear as Will turned to his side to see the bowed head of Jem, always there beside his side when in desperate need. The Silent Brother was not saying anything, but Will felt relieved as they started off at a fast pace once more. There was no need for words or thoughts, because Will knew the thought process of Jem. Hopefully it was very similar to the thought process of Brother Zechariah.

* * *

Tessa was dazed in the wreckage. She felt a long cut across her head, which she pressed her hand against. Her dress, her beautiful bridesmaid dress, had long cuts and splashes of blood and ichor across it. She looked worse than she felt, thankfully, and was able to walk around, careful to step cautiously around the piles of broken glass.

The many demons had all vanished to whatever dimensions they lived in. Tessa thought disgustedly how they must be heading back to the Institute. Red hot anger ran through her as well as countless questions. How had the demons gotten into the Institute? How'd they get into Idris? They must have known there was a wedding happening. They had escaped with Charles, Tessa remembered dazedly, though the thought of the precious babe hadn't hit her entirely. It was just a fact at the moment, and she was in a state of angry shock.

Everyone was walking around, angry and yelling, and the cries of the white-faced Charlotte were ringing in the still standing building. Nothing was broken except the windows, some pews, and some bones, which runes were being applied to to heal them back to their former state.

Tessa wanted to go to Charlotte, but what to say? Sophie and Cecily were already with her, Cecily looking furious, so there was nothing more she could add. She looked about, trying to think in the numbing madness.

There was suddenly a loud thudding noise, one of slamming doors, and everyone turned to the doors leading in from the foyer with Will coming in, one of the Silent Brothers trailing behind him before moving off to the other Silent Brothers.

Tessa went quickly to him. Will caught her arms in his hands and looked anxiously, though calmly, at her.

"Tess, are you all right? No scratches from any talons or any slashes from seraph blades?" he whispered, memorizing her face as if he hadn't seen it in days.

"Yes," she said quietly, and then she looked, aghast, at Charlotte, whom everyone was crowding around. Will led the two of them swiftly over to her, chastising the crowd in annoyed tones until they were right beside her.

Charlotte had stopped crying and was looking dangerously determined. She was sitting on a pew that had not been destroyed, and now she was making Sophie turn pale as she sniffed and tried to stand up, only to have Aunt Callida shoving her down, her hands pressing down on her shoulders.

"We've got to get to those demons," Charlotte said. "I'm fighting to get my baby back."

"You're not going, Charlotte," Henry said quickly, his hair looking like fire against his now angry pale face.

"I second that. No excuses, Charlotte, you're staying here," Will said.

Charlotte stared at him. "Will, I can—"

"See, slight problem. You can't," Will said. He shrugged. "It's you, not them. You can't go after demons with your health's condition. Charlotte, I'll get a party together. We'll go after them. There's this to take care of," and he looked around the broken cathedral with a little curl to his lip. He turned back to Charlotte. "You're the Consul. You can't move. Do the things that you can do at the moment, and trust us. Because I saw you with Charles, Charlotte, and I solemnly swear on the Soul-Sword of the Angel Raziel that I will bring your baby back to you, unscathed and absolutely alive." His eyes looked pleadingly at her. "Just stay, Charlotte. It's all you can do at the moment."

Charlotte didn't look very happy about not being able to go after her son, but she sighed, knowing that Will was right, and leaned back against the pew. Aunt Callida and Henry hovered over her as Will turned and clapped his hands.

"Gather around, ladies and gentlemen. I need a quick party to take to London, to the Institute. We need to stop the demons who are there before they run amok and cause a general wreck of things." Will looked like a leader then. He looked so serious, his skin tight against his face. His Adam's apple jerked up and down his throat, and his eyes were taking the crowd as people came forth, his hands dying to get into action to slit a few throats.

Cecily, of course, stepped forward. Will stared at her for a long moment.

"Don't even try, Cecy," he said. His voice sounded dark. When he was against her trying to go with them as usual, he sounded at least playful. His voice was void of easing emotion now. No. He was angry, and even Cecily could see that. She stepped back, glowering, and turned to head to Charlotte. Tessa looked to Sophie, who was looking aghast still at the horrid turn of events, and they each stepped to their fiancées.

Tessa watched Will as he took out the seraph blade he had placed in his belt loop. His face was determined as he weighed it in his hand, a thousand thoughts running through his head. He didn't notice Tessa's hand coming up to curve to his cheek as the background noise of Shadowhunters gathering their weapons and wishing goodbye to the remaining ones filled his ears until she whispered, "Be rational, Will."

"You don't think my idea here is rational? What else is there we can do?" Will said tightly, looking to her face. She had not shirked back from his sharp voice. She was looking at him determinedly.

"Not that. The mission, what you are about to do, there is no helping that. It must be done. But think carefully and don't be reckless when you're heading to catch a head demon in a sea of them, saving a baby that means the world to people who mean the world to you," Tessa said. "Be the leader, Will, and save him. Save them all." She kissed him gently on the cheek before heading over to Sophie, who was looking dazed at everything.

Will watched her leave, and he saw Jem looking back at him. Even hidden under the hood, Will knew him to be his old parabatai. He knew, then, from one look from Jem, that he would keep the women and Henry safe until he returned with the child.

With that reassurance in his mind, Will led a large party of Shadowhunters, most of the wedding-goers, through the streets to where a large black hole was standing mid-air. Magnus stood in front, his eyes closed, his hands sweeping and his mouth muttering words Will could not understand.

"Almost ready, Bane?" Will asked as he came to his side.

Magnus opened his eyes. The pupils dilated, and he said, staring at the Portal with a dark look in his eyes, "Feel free to dip your toes into trouble, Will."

"It's all I can really do, isn't it?" Will said. His annoyed sarcasm was not lost on Magnus as the warlock stood back and the Shadowhunter pictured the meeting room, which is swirled into.

Will turned to Magnus, a steely look in his blue eyes. "Once we're through, I want this Portal shut down. I don't want anyone going in or out, especially the demons. As if we need them running through the Glass City."

"Leave us all stuck here in your holy land, Shadowhunter?" Magnus asked, sticking his hands in his pockets, his work, at the moment, done.

"You can open it in four hours. If you find that there is demon activity in the Institute still, the active kind, close it down and open it back when you think it's a good idea," Will said.

"I can just go with you and open it for you," Magnus offered, spreading out his hand generously.

Will's eyes were hard. "I'd rather have you here with the rest of them. There's not very many men left. I'm concerned for them."

"Despite their training? What a gentleman," Magnus said. He shrugged, though, in agreement, and Will went on to say, "Let Cecily or Henry picture the place for you. I highly doubt you have a photographic memory of the Institute."

"I feel the same as you, Will," Magnus said. Will nodded and turned back to the meeting, and Magnus said, "One more question, Will. How did the demons get into your Institute?"

Will exhaled and closed his eyes, picturing getting backed into a corner and getting slashed at with a talon. "I imagine I'm going to meet someone I'm familiar with having seen. More than likely not dead at all. With my blood on its talon." Will shook his head and stepped into the Portal, getting swallowed into it briefly before he emerged into the meeting room.

One by one the Shadowhunters, sending off a feeling of intense anger into the air, stepped into the Portal. Magnus watched with both hands back in his pockets, whistling a tuneless song as he watched them go, bobbing his head as each one disappeared. Once the last was gone, he stepped in front of the Portal and whispered the disbanding enchantments. As the Portal disappeared into nothing, he stared at the space in the air where it had stood. He cleared his throat and said, "Good luck, Herondale," and then turned on his heel and started his way back to the cathedral.

* * *

Will could sense the demonic activity the moment he entered the meeting room. He turned to the other Shadowhunters as they came through and as the Portal disappeared, he gave out orders to parties of four or five or so. He turned back and felt Gabriel and Gideon already at his sides.

"Sorry about the wedding, mate," he said to Gideon, looking ahead.

"Hopefully we can pick up what we left up when we get back," Gideon said. He sounded far too calmly optimistic about this.

"Blind optimism, Gideon. Commendable, but highly unrealistic," Will said, creeping forward.

"It's called hope, Will, but call it as you will," Gideon said, and as they came up the stairs, that was when they came across the real mayhem.

The demons were running around everywhere in the meeting room, crawling on the walls, heading down to the doors to try to open them, though with little point. And they saw the Shadowhunters, and instantly they were in battle stance.

Will had expected nothing less, and the blade in his hand glowed blindingly bright blue in anticipation as he yelled an Angel's name and leapt forward, his partners at his sides taking to the ones coming at the edges. The orders were that a few parties of Shadowhunters were to stay at each and every possible exit, trapping the demons in the room and not allowing any out. A few more would hunt them down and slay them all before they could escape. And then there was Will's party, the one that was to get the baby back. At the moment, it was just a matter of trying to find a very power hungry head demon with the Branwell babe. Simple enough, Will supposed.

He and his party, including the Lightwood brothers, made their way through the room when to their right came a magnificent crash that echoed through the entire building and made many heads turn. It was coming from the entrance that let out to the kitchen. Will ran and stopped at the entrance, a little surprised.

Bridget was there with a frying pan, smacking several demons on the head and cutting them up the chin, a furious look on her face.

"None a you can just come in and ruin my kitchen, you devils!" she shouted. Will, despite the horribleness of the situation, despite what had happened in Idris, despite the fight for the building and the Branwell baby, laughed. Bridget was angry, and the demons did not know what they were doing when they crossed an angry Bridget. She was puce-colored, her hair wild under her cook's cap, and she was showing absolutely no mercy as she smacked and shoved and smacked and hit and smacked.

"Will!" Will turned at the voice, suddenly every nerve in him alert to the danger looming about him. He caught sight of Gabriel, who was running down the room, shouting, "The head demon! He's up ahead!"

Will raced after the Lightwood, twisting through the duels as the door leading out of the Institute came into view. A demon held it open, cackling, and Will recognized it. It had come back from whatever dimension Gideon had sent it to, and there on its hand was his blood, crusty and dark.

Will killed that one first. Then he followed Gabriel and now Gideon down the steps and stopped short.

The demon had gone. Several were disappearing into their black holes of hell. There was nothing to do to stop them. It was considered suicide to go into their dimensions. No getting out for all of eternity.

"Where'd they go?" Will shouted into the cold London air. The noise of the duels seemed to fade behind him as other Shadowhunters, part of the party that was to follow him to the head demon, on the stoop.

"Were you trying to be rhetorical in someone answering, or can you now stand to look at me and ask politely?" a voice said dryly from Will's left. He turned with impatience and a snarl on his beautiful face to Jessamine, whose face held the expression of a puppy pout, one she could use to make boys do what she wanted.

"Are you trying to find the demons, Will?" Jessamine asked too innocently.

Will made a grab for her arm, but he caught air. He looked to Jessie's face to see her ruthlessly smile, one that contained no humor.

"Don't play games, Jessie. Time is of the essence," Will said. "They're gone and kidnap—"

"They kidnapped Charlotte and Henry's baby and are taking him to their den. Isn't that exactly what it is, Will?" Jessamine asked, clearly irritated. "I heard them as they raced to their own Portals. As you know, Will"—Jessie gave a cold laugh and looked furious as she rose a few feet off the ground and raised her arms out, stretching them with an anger even Will didn't know she had—"I see and hear_ everything_ that happens in this courtyard." She brought herself down to his level again. "That is where they are headed. I suggest you move pretty quickly, seeing as they're already there."

Will stared a second at Jessamine, not sure what to say to her. She was helpful, but unkindly so. She turned and flounced her few inches she could move, at least turning around, her arms folded over her wavery chest so she didn't have to look at him anymore.

And then Will bolted, the sounds of Gabriel and Gideon shouting for others to join them calling behind him as he raced out of the gate and ran down the street, not having time to saddle up a horse when his feet, fueled by adrenaline and an unquenchable anger, propelled him forward at an incredible speed.

**Now, as I remember, the meeting room where they met up with vamps was at the front of the building, so that's why they came out the front. Maybe I'm wrong. And also, I decided to change the crypt to the meeting room so that, not only would they have more room for the crowds moving into Idris, THE DEMONS COULD PASS THROUGH and the story could continue as normal. :)**

**Thanks for reading! Please review! **


	17. Beating All the Demon Bums

_**Soli Deo gloria**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Infernal Devices. This should be the second-to-last-chapter. Been wanting to get these stories done for a while now. It's going well. :)**

The workhouse came into view soon enough. Will didn't know how much time had passed. He barely cared as he came to the door, panting violently, for the distance had been long, and turned the knob: no avail.

He cursed and brought his stele out, moving it with finesse and not at all any fumbling as he impatiently cut an Opening rune into the knob, giving time for the Lightwoods and several others of the party to catch up with him.

"Calm down, Will," Gideon said, breathing heavily.

"Me? Oh, never," Will said, but he did suck in a deep breath that calmed his pumped body as Tessa's words came back to him, keeping him stuck to the ground and not flying into the air. He finished with his etching, and, sticking his stele back into his belt loop, he stormed into the workhouse, a trail of Shadowhunters going to all entrances to the main floor of the workhouse coming in behind him.

Will slammed through the double doors leading to the main floor calmly, the Lightwoods at his sides, and couldn't do much but just stare for a second at the sight before him. He couldn't move his feet; he could barely breath. His lungs were constricted and filled with ice that burned him. He felt frozen, a statue.

Ahead of him was a wooden stage filled with a variety of demonic, hellish looking creatures, all disgusting and excited looking, their hot breath filling the large space with a spice something straight from the mouth of Satan. They were speaking to each other in tongues of something Will had never heard, but the way their talons and claws, streaked with creatures' and humans' blood and flesh and pus, wringed together in a scheming sort of way as they looked with a glee that made Will's blood run cold. They were watching the head demon, the baby crying and trying to wiggle his way out of his blankets in his hands, high in his raised arms. A script was held in the hand of one of the demons, strange, foreign words printed onto it in a scratchy hand.

Things fell into place for Will, and he raced forward, his blood thumping against his ears, and it was his voice that echoed through the workhouse, angry and hard and worn, "PUT THE BABY DOWN, MINION!"

The head demon turned around to see the Shadowhunters flooding in, and the demons dashed at them, strange loops of a thin strand in their hands, and before the seraph blades could plunge into a single one of the demons, the loops were whipping out and around the bodies of the Shadowhunters, tightening in coils that caught them by surprise and rendered them trapped.

Will yelled and tried to sear the ropes off him, but a loud blood-curdling voice rang through the room, making him stop when the ropes tightened at the resistance. He looked up, seething. his pale face colored with red anger and covered with a sheen of sweat. The head demon was turned to the Shadowhunters, his seven eyes taking in the hybrids, his teeth sticking out in random parts of his face, holds in his saggy skin around his five arms and six legs.

_"Nephilim,"_ it hissed, angry at the interruption. But it straightened. _"An audience for the perversion of the Shadowhunter race. A dissssssgrace to the name of Shadowhunter, the proud and noble race, the enemies of the minions of Satan. It issssss time to show you that you can be ssssssstopped, and it shall be by my hand, the glorious hand of Desdemona. Prepare, Sssshadowhunters, to see yourselves ruined, as Mortmain has ruined you before. For there is yet one among you who you allow to stay with you, one you have not yet killed, who is one of angel, human, and demon blood. A brethren of ours."_

Will may have lost his calmness at this.

"She is NOT one of you! HOW DARE YOU—" he wriggled against his bonds and looked angrily, his body powered by anger and the feeling of wanting to slash the head demon into a thousand pieces at the mere mention of Tessa on that devil's lips, as several demons leapt from the stage and came around to surround him, seeing as he was the one with the heaviest reaction at this.

Gabriel gulped, knowing who the head demon was talking about, and Gideon tried to keep calm as he said, "Put the child down. He has done nothing wrong. Fight us, fight the armed, and have glorious victory when you have slain the Nephilim, and not being cowardly for sacrificing a could-be good life of an innocent child. Come after us, demon, and fight!"

Nobody was calm at this point.

_"You have no leverage, Sssshadowhunter, and there is nothing you can do about this."_ The head demon turned to one with the script and slithered something in a language that made Will want to stick his fingers in his ears as it filled his head, echoing and making him want to scream to rid himself of it.

The script was held up and words filled the air. Will could barely see what was happening, but it was there. There was an echoing, and the crying of the baby was loud, and Will was not sure what they were doing at all, for this sounded nothing like Tessa had described happening to her, but all he could see was Charlotte and Henry's child in pain, kidnapped by the enemy of the Shadowhunters, and he shouted, "PUT THE CHILD DOWN, DEMON! DEVIL SPAWN, LET HIM GO AND TAKE ME INSTEAD!"

The head demon turned to him and gave him a very heavy dark look. _"It'ssss too late for you, Nephilim. You are no use to us; only to restrain you, we must, to keep you from him. The only reason isssss that to keep you imprisoned."_

"Oh, hell," Will muttered under his breath. This wasn't going to work, and there was nothing he could think of to do to fight against the demons and rescue the child. He wracked his brain and tried to free himself, looking to Gabriel and Gideon to see if they had found a way, but they were just as lost as he was.

There was smoke coming from the front of the demons, who had their backs to the Shadowhunters to keep their show between the evil spirits and not to their guests, and so they didn't notice, as the Shadowhunters did, when a black something appeared outside the window, making Will stop in shock. He stared, dumbfounded, as a Portal appeared, and who came out first but Tatiana Blackthorn, leading Cecily, Sophie, Tessa, Charlotte, Henry, Aunt Callida, and many, many others into the streets around the workhouse.

Will felt this as a game of chess, suddenly feeling lighter. There was a turning point in the game, and he knew this was going to go well in his favor. He knew it in his bones that it was his sister's idea to come here. Tatiana knew the place. Cecily was leading, he could see through the window. The pawns and knights had come in to save the queen. He looked back at the head demon with a dangerous gleam in his eye, one that said that he'd better watch out.

The demons, of course, noticed the party, and the head demon hissed and spoke in slithering tongues to its brothers. Immediately many flew to the entrances. Will scoffed. Opening Runes would open the doors right away; a seraph blade through a door could cut any demon. There was no point, but Will liked it.

He presently heard the sound of demons screaming; he could not turn around, seeing as the demons surrounding him would see that as a sign of aggravation, but he could heard them. He could hear Cecily yelling, sounding as fierce as a warrior Shadowhunter of old, and he smiled to himself. He would never ever confirm that smile, but it was of a certain pride for his young sister to come leading a party of backup, despite the fact that it was a party filled with women and Henry.

Cecily came running up to him with Aunt Callida at her heels. "Will, what have you done now?" she mused as she swooped and brought her seraph blade down on the head of a demon coming raging toward her.

"Nothing much; usual, really," Will said grimly as he ducked and avoided a seraph blade to his head as Aunt Callida sliced the head off a demon, making it scream and fold away. He moved back and felt something sliding down his back. Cecily's sighing voice said, "You've got to be more careful. Now, quick, have you gotten Charles yet?"

"That was next on the list," Will said as the ropes slipped away and Cecily's blade was back in her belt. His seraph blade now accessible, he put his back to Cecily, hoping to protect his little sister the best he could when she didn't want protection, and said, "The head demon has him. Come on," and he ran forward, turning to look back to see Cecily, her lips in a thin line, her hair in a braid bouncing against her back, following orders for once. She was following him.

"We need to hold off these demons, keep them in here for a little while longer," Cecily said.

"What for? Why don't we destroy them all?" Will said.

"Illogical, Will." Cecily turned and began to duel. Will ran two-hundred-seventy degrees around the pair, the snarling demon and his little sister, and succeeded in slashing the demon, his blade glowing against the murky dark hell. It screeched and the two Herondales moved on. Cecily caught her breath somehow and continued. "Magnus is heading to the Institute. Apparently Henry has been working on something without telling us."

"And WHY—would he make something that'd be helpful in this instance—" Will was grunting hard, "—and not tell us about it?"

"Will, you know why. Everyone laughs at his inventions, sure he's going to fail again. Of course he worked on it in secret, you bullying cretin," Cecily said disgustedly as the two ran around a pair of duels and looked onto the stage. It was chaos on the platform.

"I'm not THAT mean to him—"

"Excuses, Will, all of which are lies. You practically lead the parties with your non conviction. Very helpful, Will," Cecily said. "Anyway, Magnus had been creeping around the crypt last night and found it. At the cathedral, he asked Henry about it, for the sake of conversation." The two siblings now ducked under a table and looked for an opportunity to get onto the platform. Cecily continued. "Henry looked so delighted that he nearly stood up. He nearly fell over and I had to catch him. He told Magnus that it could be used, though it's untested—"

"As usual—"

"Will. I may have to punch you."

"How ladylike. Mother would be so proud."

"Same of you as of me. Anyway, so Magnus is going to fetch it while we keep the demons at bay." The two ducked further as fire passed by them, from some unknown source.

"And what is this device, Cecily? You haven't exactly been revealing with your information," Will said.

Cecily scowled at him. "I haven't?"

"Well?" Will said, looking undeterred.

"It's a device meant to scatter evil spirits back to their hellish dimensions. It's not supposed to last long, seeing as it is a prototype and, well, it's more than likely not able to send away evil spirits back to their realms, but it's worth a shot," Cecily said. She looked up to the ceiling and then to Will. "Here's with a hope and a prayer."

"This should be fun, then, experimenting on the battlefield," Will said grimly, looking ahead to the platform where Shadowhunters were now flying to. He could barely hear Cecily's words in response, and then he caught her hand that didn't hold her seraph blade and pulled her after him to the platform, his blood racing, flying through his veins, as he jumped up and started to ram his way through, letting go of his little sister's hand and straining to see or hear the child.

* * *

Sophie was waiting by the door, ducking and holding her seraph blade with a determinedness that washed over her like a sense of peace. Fine. Her first battle, and it's in her wedding dress. She could deal with that. Her hair was wild around her head, her scar searing in her face, standing out like a mark dealt by some divine hand, as she slashed at any demon she saw, her heart pounding and her mind straining to remember the words of Gideon that he had spoken through her training. She was guarding the doors, waiting for Magnus to come and hand off the device. He had to leave, or else he too would get disapparated or sent away to whatever the spirits would end up as well.

Nothing appeared out in the streets. She was wearing Glamour, so she wasn't worried about being seen wearing a torn wedding dress with black marks all over her skin by mundanes. That was good. Being caught like this would just add a horridness not already there.

Sophie exhaled. She could feel the demonic activity around her. Not in her, thank goodness. She wanted to close her eyes, to seek blackness instead of the wooden doors across from her, but she didn't. She had to be alert to fight at a moment's notice.

What a day for her first battle. Her wedding day.

Suddenly a figure came skipping onto the stone from a black Portal. Sophie exhaled as Magnus came striding to her, tossing the device to her and tipping her from his forehead, though he had no hat.

"Good luck, Miss Collins," he said, bowing his head slightly as he stepped back. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I expect to find the situation far easier to step into without being blown to some place I know not of."

"Thank you, Mr. Bane," Sophie said awkwardly. She didn't have much experience with warlocks, though Tessa was technically one. Magnus didn't seem to notice her tone as he stepped through the Portal and closed it off, keeping any demons from going back into the Institute with him and the device from expelling him.

Sophie turned and immediately entered the workhouse. A demon was coming at her from the double doors. She screeched and slashed at it. She missed, and it headed for her ankles, dark twisted fangs coming out of its mouth. She bent and slashed at it once more. It shrieked and she watched as it disappeared, leaving tiny ashlike bits of itself on the ground in front of her.

She exhaled, her heart pounding, and she ran through the doors. She closed them behind her and looked frantically across the entire floor, which was spotted with black puddles of blood and ichor. There was screeches in the air, from the Shadowhunters upon being clawed or bit, and from the demons as they were taken away to whatever dimension they had come from. She needed to find Will. She trusted him fully to save the child. Gideon was busy in the corner of her eye. He was busy. Will. He needed to secure the child before she gave off the device to Henry.

"Will!" she yelled. Her voice was lost in the cacophony of noise. But then she spied him on the platform several yards ahead of her, past the broken furniture and broken glass and quickly moving bodies culminating in a battle in front of her, Cecily by his side, the babe in his view.

Sophie didn't know what she was doing, and she was sure it was a stupid thing to do, but she didn't care. She charged across the battlefield, slashing away at the demons as they came crawling nears her skirts, clawing for a tendril of her dress, but she moved out of the way. She hadn't had the time to get into the traditional Shadowhunter gear; her dress did encumber her walk, but she was moving fast. Sophie had a determination that would not be stopped by a mere wedding dress.

She came up, breathing heavily, to the platform, and yelled, "Will!"

Will turned and faced a demon, catching glimpses of Sophie as he tried to keep himself from getting severely wounded by the evil spirit in front of him.

"Good afternoon, Sophie. Lovely day for a wedding. Highly commend you on that," Will said.

Sophie was not amused.

"Will, you need to secure Charles!" She held up the device carefully, holding onto it tightly in case some demons saw its importance and tried to snatch it. "This is a device of Henry's—"

"I know. Don't worry, Cecily has informed me and educated me on the entire backstory of its life," Will said, ducking and then beheading the demon. He turned and ran then, and Sophie's heart balked when she saw him thrust the seraph blade right so it was directly under the chin of the head demon. Things grew suddenly quiet so only Will's voice could be heard.

"Hand over the child. Now."

The head demon drew something very small out of his belt very calmly. Will's seraph blade came closer. He couldn't risk killing the demon and making him drop the child. The something very small turned out to be a silvery blade with strange black tendrils twisting and turning around the blade, giving off the aura of pain and horror and evil.

_"One prick, and the child is no longer a Shadowhunter,"_ the head demon said.

"Angel blood overwhelms demon blood. Good wins over evil. Give him up." Will's voice was firm, hard.

The head demon stuck the knife at the child's forehead. A scream could be heard from the crowd. The knife's tip was spinning delicately at the smooth skin. Just a little pressure, and it would break the skin and make blood squirt out.

_"Or should I aim at the child's heart?"_ the head demon said, practically taunting. Sophie could see the sweat dripping off the end of Will's nose. He was breathing hard, yet he restrained his movements. Then suddenly the seraph blade went through the head demon's throat and Will dropped his blade. His hands free, his Shadowhunter quick reflexes working in his favor, he quickly moved in front and caught the child in his arm as the head demon screeched so hard that the remaining glass panes in the windows shook.

"Now, Sophie!" Cecily and Will both shouted.

Sophie stared hard at the demons, the lines in her face strong and prominent, and her legs buckled as she pressed down on the button, sending bursts of energy through the rooms. The energy bubbles launched into the demons, making them claw at their throats. Eyes were opened wide as saucers; some, pure black, grew so tiny that a needlepoint could be tinier. The sounds they emitted were enough to make the bride wish she was deaf as they screeched, screamed, shouted, yelled, cried out in strangled tones, the very noises from their throats sounding like they were coming from some unearthly dark organ that was not tuned but rather made to break one's hearing.

Sophie didn't put her hands against her ears, though. She just stared mutely at the mess as they burst into pieces, and then seemed to fall away into some sort of black hole.

The Shadowhunters backed away from them, shocked as the demons were sent back to wherever they had come from. The baby started to cry in the crook of Will's arm. He shifted the child and looked around, taking it all in.

And then suddenly it was all quiet. Not a noise reverberated against those walls. Complete silence.

Then there was noise. There was shouts, screams, and people dashing to the baby and Sophie. Will moved past the people, Cecily walking in front as a guard for him as he hopped off the stage and came to Charlotte, who was barely able to stand and was being set against a broken table.

Will knelt beside her and offered her Charles. "Safe and sound. Alive as well, which is always a good thing." He offered her a reassuring smile as tears came to her eyes as she took her child and held him against her shoulder.

"Thank you, Will," she said.

Will nodded and stood up. He nodded to Henry, who was just beside Charlotte, and said, "Your invention worked as well as it should have. Well done, Henry."

Henry was pale, as usual, but was collecting a little blush at the compliment. "Oh, nothing, Will," he said modestly as he bent over his wife and son.

Will stood up and looked about, catching sight of Gideon holding Sophie close to him, his forehead against hers, both of their pairs of eyes closed. Gabriel was coming leaping over broken pieces of furniture and broken glasses to catch Cecily's wrists in his slim white hands and ask her how she was.

"Cecily, that was reckless," he said.

"And something that was necessary, seeing the position they left you in," Cecily said.

"Well, that's true, but Cecily . . ." Gabriel said, shaking his head.

"Probably should keep a better eye on her, if I were you," Will said as he passed them, sounding oddly light. Gabriel looked over his shoulder back at him, confused. Will winked at him and then turned to find Tessa.

"Will" was all she said, but that was all that needed to be said. He caught her in his arms; she didn't seem to mind that he was disgusting. He grasped her close, his face against her hair. She wasn't hurt; suddenly the thought of the demon in her brought him to look at her in the face, brushing hair away from her face.

"You're still alive," he said, sounding amazed.

Tessa smiled brilliantly at him. "The angel blood overwhelms the demon, Will."

Will smiled then. The smile lit up his face, made his black hair even darker and more beautiful, his wonderful eyes pop, his face shine. "I'm awfully glad you're fine."

"Not yet dust and ashes," she whispered.

"Can't say the same for them," Will said.

**Let's just pretend that Magnus is allowed to waltz about the Institute. I didn't notice that little story error until the story was pretty much over, so please, let's roll with it. XD**

**Thanks for reading! Please review!  
**


	18. The END

_**Soli Deo gloria.**_

**DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own the Infernal Devices. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the last chapter of The Warrior Bride for your reading pleasure, *waves a hand towards it***

Henry, poor dear Henry, was torn away from the mother and child to set up a Portal for them to go through. He had a particularly hard time of it, making one without the use of Magnus's magic, until the warlock popped through a shiny black hole and holding out his hands, smiled delicately and said, "And can I be of any service?"

"So genteel, Magnus," Will said, as Magnus finished his work and stood back. "Sounds like the warlock is showing a little pity."

"Repaying a little debt for room and board is all I'm doing, Shadowhunter," Magnus said, giving Will a cold smile as he gestured with his hands to the guests to head on in. Inside the Portal showed not the cold, dark meeting room of the Institute but a shining light on a tan and brown place that Will quickly realized to be the outside of the cathedral.

Magnus shot him a look. "It's a wedding after all, it seems. Come on. I saw the glass get repaired with my own eyes. Don't know how, seeing as my magic could have fixed it easily if it hadn't been on holy property, and I wasn't using it, but, well, there you go, now. You Shadowhunters can do more things than kill demons after all."

"A race of many talents are we, while you only have the talent of being exemplaryingly annoyed." Will sounded almost cheerful above it all.

Magnus bowed. "I'll take that as a compliment and not as a well meaning insult, Shadowhunter."

"What small favors you offer us," Will said. He had Tessa on his arm as he walked through the Portal, and he swore that Magnus winked at him as he disappeared into the City of Glass, the white spires of pure clearness filling the noon sky instead of the grey sky of London with the bare boards of workhouses, full of splinters and hanging off nails. The air was good and clean, filling his lungs after such a hard battle, and Tessa turned to him and said abruptly, "Are there any runes that can clean off a good dress shirt?"

Will looked at his front for a second, for her words practically demanded that he take a good look at himself. "Not that I know of. You should know, though, if there were any. After all, who else just decides to read the Codex—"

Tessa smacked his shoulder and smiled. "I did that to get acquainted with the world surrounding me, not to make sure that I could help wash out blood and ichor stains."

Will nodded and cocked his head. "I believe Lucy has a special tonic for getting the stains out."

"That's relieving. But can she apply it quickly with the clothes still on the person who's wearing them in a sanctuary?" This was what Tessa had to know, and Will shook his head, saying, "It usually takes a few hours and a good soak, or so Lucy complains."

"Will Sophie and Gideon mind if we all look dreadful, then?" Tessa said teasingly.

Will's eyebrows furrowed. "Not me. I always look fantastic, never dreadful, and never shall that word be applied to me as a suitable adjective describing my person."

Tessa grinned at him. "Of course. Whatever you say, Will."

With that, the whole company rushed to the cathedral, leaving Magnus to go back to his flower picking-apart, a hobby he found to be quite boring but satisfying to his soul.

The Silent Brothers were all finishing with the relighting of the several hundred candles, which were reassembled in their little ranks along the back of the sanctuary. The pews were being put back into their spots, their pieces put back together. Will heard from one of the bitter old Shadowhunters that they had been carried out and repaired by Magnus's magic.

"A piece of warlock magic being used to fix sacred Shadowhunter pieces of several years apiece in age," the old man said bitterly, but Will only smirked. After all, the furniture now looked as it had when they had come into the sanctuary only that morning. And, if no one wanted to talk about it anymore, he could practically guarantee that none of the future generations would remember it. Only if they kept such a secret from the Clave. Will knew that Charlotte would quietly turn a blind eye to the now fixed problem.

Will could see that one of the Silent Brothers turning from the candles was Jem. His hood was pulled back a little to show his black and silver hair. Will caught his eyes, and there was a silent exchange between them. A thank you, a hello, a smirk, a look that was filled with emotions that talked of all the good times they had had and what that chase had brought back for them, a see you later, when I can. A slight nod, and then their eye contact broke.

Everyone assembled once more; it was as if they hadn't been interrupted at all, excepting the disgusting array of filth that hadn't been able to be fully dabbed away by Aunt Callida's thin-lipped cleanliness. The haunting voices once more filled the air; the Silent Brother finished applying the rest of the runes, the deliciously twisted black lines against the pale skin of the Shadowhunter pair, and the hands of Gideon and Sophie were joined, and their smiles could not be matched. Because despite the disruption in their wedding, they were having only eyes for each other.

Will was the one who applauded first and the hardest when Gideon clutched his wife close and kissed her soundly in front of the entire sanctuary once the Silent Brothers stood back, allowing the married pair to give in to their kissing. He wholly approved, and when he met eyes with Tessa across the stage, he knew she felt the same.

* * *

The rest of the day went surprisingly well. Rice was thrown joyfully at the couple as they disappeared through the Portal to the Institute. Will and Tessa and Cecily were the fastest and hardest throwers of the rice, Will being the most enthusiastic of them all. Gabriel threw him a look that Cecily quickly wiped off, making him somehow join in the procession.

They returned to the Institute, where the real fun began. Luckily, the demons were not able to do much business here, as they were quickly disposed of and vanished, for they didn't last long on holy ground. Will commended the old man who decided it was a good idea to build the Institute here.

Dirty clothes were exchanged for party clothes, and the couple went down in pairs to the meeting room where the Christmas party had been held that previous year and years past. The entire place was cleaned and decorated for the occasion. Flowers that had been used in decorating the church set up everywhere. Beautiful plants and everything in gold and bright yellow with silver tones. Ribbons and chandeliers hung in the air, their candles lighting up the entire place. Tables set with elegant black cloths and flower centerpieces covered the place, all the silver polished to perfection. Hard wooden chairs with favors and lanterns hung on the ceiling. Petals covered the ballroom floor, and the band of Shadowhunters at the violins and cello and piano were playing a lovely and fast tune.

The tables were covered with remnants of dinner, and Tessa and Will were watching the festivities from the punch bowl, which was a shining piece of blown glassware.

"Rambunctious, isn't she?" Will remarked casually as he ladled himself another cup of punch and pointed out Cecily, a mischievous smile on her face, who was dragging Gabriel by the tie over to the dance.

"A bit, I suppose," Tessa said. She was now wearing a light cream colored dress, which was not only slimming but very simple and sweet, perfect for dancing. She had glittering glass beads on a ribbon on her head. She was a dream to Will, who was wearing gloves, his top hat unsinged atop his head. He now took one look at her and then gulping back the rest of his punch, turned to Tessa and said, "Might I have the lovely hand of Miss Gray to take this dance with?"

Tessa turned to him with a shocked expression on her face, her gloved hand poised over her chest in a surprised gesture.

"Me, good sir?" she said, sounding almost mocking.

"No, the maid," Will said.

"I believe Lucy is quite busy at the moment," Tessa said.

"Well, I'll have to settle for you, then," Will said, and this made Tessa catch her breath as Will caught her hand and swept her into the lineup.

They danced together in the crowd, the couple switching off partners every few turns—but their eyes never left each other. Tessa would curtsy and Will would chivalrously bow, and both of their eyes twinkled, Will's with a fine mischievous charm. The music was fine, loudly sending them all into beautiful rapture, twisting and turning elegantly as their hands caught each other, at the shoulder and waist as they should be, and the music came to a stop. Tessa looked up at Will, who had lost his smile and he immediately twirled her so that she was on his other side. Delicately taking her gloved hand in his, he whispered next to her ear, sending the hairs on her neck up in surprise, "And may I have the next dance?"

And, of course, Will knew the answer to that.

* * *

The time came in the evening when the cake was to be served. It was a large cake, dark black with golden accents; gold roses adorned it, borders beautifully piped with sweeps and drapes along the sides. It was a masterpiece, and Bridget was the one to deliver it at exactly nine o'clock that night.

A bell sounded, and the guests came from the ball floor and the sidelines to their tables to watch expectantly the married couple at their special long table that swept past the length of the entire room, holding practically each permanent Institute resident at its stead. Gideon sat in the middle, Sophie by his side. He now stood up and held a glass in his hand, tapping its side with his spoon.

All eyes fell onto him automatically. Will turned half his body and looked on with amusement and a mind to be entertained by what Gideon was going to say.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, Shadowhunters who have all gathered for the event of the joining of my and my wife's hands in marriage. It's been a pleasure living with most of you this past week"—Will gave a loud cough at that—"and I would like to extend a thank you from both myself and my bride, Sophie. It's been an adventure, obviously, with the demons and further obstacles and events that have passed along this week, and I thank you for your patience in our dealing with it."

Gabriel could only groan and hide his face in his hands as Will abruptly stood up, grinning broadly like a mad hatter. Tessa was just barely able to capture his coattails in her hands and twist him back down, but her efforts were for naught, for he was now taking over the speaking portion of the evening.

"Thank you, Gideon, for that riveting speech. Best thing I ever heard; must've spent hours on that. Beautiful work," Will said cheerfully.

Cecily looked like she wanted to catch him by the throat and strangle him. Charlotte moaned and Henry didn't know what to do. So Will continued, looking across at the tables of astonished and some mortified Shadowhunters with a serious look now, "And it really is something. Because all he's done is praise you all, when, even though you have helped with the demon chases and slaying and all that, you have done nothing for him to thank you for. Gideon Lightwood, Gid, Gid, Giddy," Will said, turning to the married couple, "oh, that's a right good nickname." He cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

"Gideon, and Sophie, you two are the most deserving of anyone here. First of all, you both fought on your wedding day, which was pretty damn amazing, and you've both bounced back from bad pasts. Despite what these people think of you, believe me when I say congratulations, and I hope you have the best of years before you for the two of you to survive through together. You two are delightful together, honestly, and I wish you the best," and Will bowed theatrically. He was reluctantly applauded by the audience, who felt like they had been smoothly insulted, but was clapped hard by the large table's residents, despite what Cecily and Gabriel thought of his behavior.

Will then turned and swept a hand to the cake, saying, "And what a . . . thing, made by Bridget. I do believe it is time for dessert," and he sat down with a loud THANK and placed the napkin smoothly onto his lap and looked expectantly, as innocent as a wee child hiding a secret, to Tessa, who didn't know how on Earth she was going to survive several years of marriage with him. She didn't very much care, though, as she proved herself very well to surviving him as she kept Will from picking at her piece of orange cake.

Cecily and Gabriel, having received their cake and eaten it too, stood up and headed to the punch bowl, as others started to go back to the dance floor to give in to a long and frolicking romp. Cecily was tired from the day, though, and had told Gabriel so (in a casual fashion, of course, for Cecily was not one to loudly complain of such ailments) as he had gotten her chair for her, which was rather gentlemanly of him. And so, because of this, they were filling up on the punch, which Cecily was smacking between her lips.

"Tastefully spiked. Which is good, for I was worried that Will had dumped a whole lot of rum into here and sat back to watch as the place went like a bar," Cecily said, taking tasteful sips of her punch as she looked around the room and then back to Gabriel again.

"Sounds like something he would do," Gabriel said slowly, examining the drink in his hand suspiciously.

"Exactly. That was why I was wary," Cecily said. She caught him looking into his drink and said so loudly that he was startled and dropped a splotch of drink onto the carpeted floor, "You know, I told you it's _tastefully_ spiked. Will doesn't do tasteful. He's rather along the lines of startling and shocking."

"Sorry," Gabriel muttered.

Cecily looked hardly ruffled. She placed her cup on the table on which the punch bowl sat, one amongst many other crystal cups half-filled or left with dregs of drink. She turned to Gabriel and her hand went down his forearm to his wrist, gently resting against his palm.

"Shall we go dance now? I feel refreshed and ready," Cecily said.

Gabriel grasped her hand in his and nodded quickly. He turned his head and caught sight of Gideon and Sophie taking a dance together and said, "Should we stay clear from the bride and groom or head straight to them?"

Cecily thought about what had happened to them over the past few days, from the arriving guests to Charlotte to the demons coming in and crashing their wedding, from scratches to Silent Brothers, Silent Brothers _everywhere_, and Bridget's cooking, and she said, "Perhaps it's best for the two of them to be left alone, just for a little while. They could use the time for themselves."

"Yes, sure," Gabriel said. He looked back to Cecily. Her blue eyes were very mischievous under her hair, which she had pulled back to keep from getting tossed about as they danced.

"Shall we then, Mr. Lightwood?" she said, raising a black eyebrow and looking as innocent as she could be.

Gabriel's grip on her hand was firm as she grinned, and they flew onto the dance floor. All those nights in the training room were not all them snogging; oh, they knew how to dance. Gabriel would chase Cecily, for she loved having him chase her, and he'd catch her wrists and they would twirl and shift and dance about the training room, and so the two of them were wonderful dancers as they kept eyes only on each other amongst the other dancers, like they were the only two Shadowhunters in the room.

* * *

The sky was one of the most beautiful Will had ever seen. Even in Wales, nothing could compare to the cleaning fog revealing a rich, navy dark sky, highlighted with black in some places, twinkling stars sticking out and shining like tiny pieces of broken, rough glass. The moon, a round with splotches of grey, but big, full. Will could hear the distant howls of the werewolves as they ran towards their hunting areas, or into their corners to chain themselves away to keep themselves from doing damage. Well, Will highly doubted they did that anymore. They stopped a few centuries ago when they realized that they wanted to harm the mundanes and Downworlders and Shadowhunters. If they could get away with it, of course. But they couldn't, the Accords stated that, so they ran to find some delicious, fresh London deer or whatever they could find in the woods of the parks.

To put things simply, it was a beautiful night, with a lovely sky, barely any fog, and a beautiful woman for Will to just stare at. For Tessa, being the reader she was, was taking in the scenery and imagining how it would be described in a book. Will was just staring at her, somehow taken back for a second to remind himself that he was going to marry her that June. _Wait_, he remembered. June was an awful long way off.

"Tess, let's get married," he said.

Tessa turned to him. "I thought that was already the plan."

"Yes, true, but sooner. Maybe right now. Idris isn't closed or anything. The Silent Brothers don't breathe; they probably don't sleep either. We can go do it, right now," Will said, stepping up to her.

Tessa looked at him and laughed, though this did nothing to deter him.

"How much punch did you drink, Will?" she asked.

Will shrugged, tilted his head, cracked a bit of a smile. "Dunno. Some, at least. I'm sure. Less than three cups, more than one. Let's leave it at that because I honestly don't remember."

"Well, let's remember this, then, Will," Tessa said, drawing herself closer to him so that there was barely any distance between the two of them at all. In fact, her nose was just brushing his, and she closed her eyes so that she couldn't see how his bright blue eyes were crossed, and she breathed against his smooth skin, taking in his scent of sweat and blood and a bit of punch and salt. "I love you, William Herondale, but I do not want to get married so late at night on the wedding of two of our friends. Because our day, just the day for us two, is going to be just that, ours, and no one else's, and that day, that wonderful day in June, is the day we'll be joined together in more ways than one. And we have planning to do, Will, and so much to do, but there's plenty of time. No need to rush on one of your whims."

Will was intoxicated by the sound of her voice, so low and smooth against his ears. So he couldn't say a word, not even if he tried.

Tessa drew back and whispered, just inches from his mouth, "And I shall go through each day in anticipation for our wedding day, Will. But the waiting's half the fun."

He found his voice and unlocked it, threw hot water on it to thaw it from its frozen state. His voice was low and husky. "I'd hardly call it fun."

"I would," Tessa said.

"That's your definition of fun, Tess?" Will whispered.

She didn't answer his question, but replied in the way she knew he would. With a question. "What is your definition of fun, Will?"

"Oh, Tess," he whispered. His breath came out as a puff of white smoke as he leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips. She moaned and caught his hair in her gloved hands, closing her eyes and thinking of nothing but him, him, _Will_. He smiled against her lips and held her close, feeling a pull in his chest that wanted her nearer to him.

_"Excuse me!"_ came the call from their left. Will broke away from Tessa very slowly, just to annoy the person who was annoying him right now. He looked at with her with such a dazed look, one that had his eyes cloudy and his lips slightly parted.

And then he turned away and said, "Enjoying the view, Jessie?"

Tessa turned to see Jessamine standing a few feet away from them, her arms crossed over her chest, her face set in an annoyed way.

"No, William, I am not." She shook her head. "Improper, out here in the open—"

"Glamoured, if you don't remember, Jessie, and so you are the only one with an excellent view so as you are the only other one here, besides Tess, who can give me an assessment and overall performance report on my kissing," Will said, very calmly so.

"Disgusting. Honestly, Will, have I taught you nothing on good manners? Do your snogging in a more private place than the stoop of the Institute, if you could, please," Jessie said. She turned with an injured sniff, making her back turn to them, and that was her way of showing her disapproval and exit from the conversation she did not want to have.

Tessa turned back to Will and said, "Shall we head back inside?"

Will growled. "I suppose we must." He turned, but said, "There's too many people in there."

Tessa's hand slipped into his. "We'll have less at our wedding."

"And more punch," he said.

"Yes, and bigger flower arrangements and a larger band of musicians and a monkey from Africa," Tessa said.

"Sounds wonderful," Will said, opening the stark wood door. He waved to it with his free hand to Tessa, saying, "Tell me more about our wedding."

"Will. . ." Tessa said, but she was smiling as she passed the threshold of the Institute, pulling Will in after her.

The door closed with a quiet_ thud_ behind them.

**The end.**

**That's about it, yes. Thanks for reading! Please review!**


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